Never Quite As It Seems
by jade
Summary: Makino Tsukushi grew up next door to her childhood sweetheart but they are seperated by college. Can Tsukushi survive a transfer? Or better yet, will she survive Doumyouji? COMPLETED!!!
1. Round One Of The Battle Royale!

Okay, well, I know, I shouldn't be writing this but I have to get all the silliness out of my system for the AU of DOOM! (Um, sorry everyone, not telling any more than that.) I think I'm coming down with something. (MY PRECIOUS VOCAL CORDS!!!) I got this idea while staring at the wooden floor under my feet in the choir room. The teacher said something about college and something just clicked in my mind. Hana Yori Dango people? College? I'M BRILLIANT! (Yeah I've managed to trap them all on a boat before but what do I know about college? Er, I'll get around it…much like said 'boat') You should love this story, because I love it. (What is this a cult now?) Ah, you'll probably want to get to this story. Keep in mind, this is my first story ever using the first person. (Teresa you are so the pioneer of the two of us! Perhaps I'll out do you if I'm the first one to write a yaoi lemon. Um…how does one go about doing said task?) 

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango. (Doumyouji-sama! You are so great! Especially on pillowcases! ~T~ OH TERESA! Look at this one: b- (IT'S THE PELVIC THRUSTING MOVE OF DOOM!)

Warning: Um, other than my insane little things like: .-_- NURIKO! Just cussing you know?

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter One

_"All the small things,_

_True care, truth brings,_

_I'll take one life,_

_You're my best trip,_

_Always I know,_

_You'll be at my show,_

_Watching, waiting,_

_Commiserating."_

_            -All The Small Things _by Blink 182

            It was the big day. The first day of the second semester. I had to switch colleges and live in a house on the college grounds. Why did I have to do this? I guess I should start at the beginning of everything. 

            My name is Makino Tsukushi. I was born in a small town, growing up right next to my best friend in the whole world, Hanazawa Rui. He's always been a little introverted and can be downright strange at times but I felt myself drawn to the odd boy. Rui would play the violin for hours on end, forgetting the rest of the world existed, and I would patiently wait for him to remember. He was far more interesting than anyone else. It was on the last day of school on my senior year, giving a speech at graduation to everyone. (I was valedictorian you see.) Something made me look up from the crowd of parents to my fellow classmates. My eyes fell on a half asleep Rui and it hit me.

            I was in love with Rui.

            Suddenly whenever I talked to him I was nervous. When he smiled at me (Which was rare, Rui didn't smile much and laughed even less) my breath would catch. Even though I was uncomfortable, I found myself unable to not spend time with him. I was aware that I wasn't very pretty although my friend Makiko all through high school insisted that I was. I have plain brown hair and even plainer brown eyes. Yeah, it was a winning combination but I couldn't help but wish that Rui would think I was pretty. He always did think odd things were pretty, sometimes staring at leaves for hours on end. Oh, but I need to get on with my story.

            Rui got accepted to a different college then me and I grew more and more sure that some beautiful girl would come along, taking away Rui forever. I panicked and started to put in numerous requests to transfer to Rui's college and live in house number F4. (I learned all about it from the various e-mails we traded back and forth.) Finally I was granted, so here it was moving day.

            My father loaded us all up. (Me, mom, and my brother) in a small moving truck, headed for Eitoko College. It took about an hour, with complaining from my sixteen year old brother who told us that he had important things to do. When I inquired what things he simply glowered at me. My dad kept trying to explain that this was important, me moving out of the house. My college had been close enough that I could take a bus to get there. Now I would have to live with a bunch of strangers and Rui. In my e-mails to him, I had made no mention that I was coming. Rui didn't particularly like surprises but I hoped he would be excited to see me after all this time. 

            We pulled up in front of house number F4, me being incredibly jittery. I grabbed a couple of suitcases, knocking on the door. The door opened to some guy I didn't know. He had short hair and was a little tall. He blinked at me several times as if trying to recall me in his mind. 

            "Akira!" The boy turned and yelled. "One of your girlfriends is here!"

            "Not uh! I didn't invite any over! She's probably one of yours!" A male voice shouted back. I was a little confused.

            "I'm Makino Tsukushi. I've been transferred to this house." I explained, handing the boy the house assignment card. His eyes bugged out as he read it.

            "A-a girl?" The boy stammered in surprise. "Not at the F4 house! Maybe they made a mistake…" What was with this guy? Was he dumb?

            "Yes I am a girl and no, they didn't make a mistake." I told him. The boy nodded reluctantly.

            "I'm Nishikado Soujirou." The boy stuck out his hand. We shook and then he let me inside. First we walked down a hallway to a large living room where a longhaired boy was watching TV and eating potato chips. 

            "Whose that?" He asked looking only half interested. The living room had various wrappers from junk food. I wondered how the other girls put up with it.

            "Our new…housemate. Tsukushi, right?" Soujirou asked me. I nodded. My father and brother had boxes right behind me. The longhaired boy froze at the announcement, causing a potato chip to fall out of his hands. 

            "No way! This is a practical joke right? Doumyouji wouldn't actually let an ugly girl like that in the house!" The boy jumped to his feet. I put my hands on my hips.

            "I am your new housemate so you'll just have to deal with it!" I was angry. Makiko always said I had a bit of a temper. These guys were acting like a bunch of dolts. 

            "I hate to interrupt but these boxes _are_ heavy." My dad said pointedly. Soujirou smiled sheepishly.

            "Sorry. I guess you'll have the only empty room left." Soujirou lead me up to my room. It was a little small compared to my room in my house but I really didn't mind. The walls were painted white and the carpet was blue. I liked it. The window on the opposite side of the room had a wonderful view of the park behind all the houses.

            "This is a great place." I commented cheerfully. That's when someone came wandering down the hall. As soon as I saw him, I froze. His marble eyes saw me and he looked a little surprised. I resisted the urge to hug him. Rui always did hate sentimental mushy stuff or so he made it seem. 

            "Tsukushi?" Rui's voice held a note of disbelief. I had been his only friend all through high school. It wouldn't surprise me if he hugged me. In fact he seemed just about to do something, the air of anticipation was so great. 

            That's when our moment was ruined. 

            "WHO THE HELL PARKED IN MY SPOT?" The angry yell seemed to sound through the whole house. I ran out my door, past Rui to see what was going on. I found out as I got outside. A young man was yelling at my dad, shaking his finger wildly at the small moving truck. My father was obviously trying to calm him down. I decided to intervene.

            "Excuse me." I piped up and the guy turned towards me with an irate expression. He had dark curly hair and dark eyes. 

            "This piece of junk is parked in _my _spot." The guy said indignantly. _Gee, that's a real travesty. What a loser! Oh I have to park in my own little spot or the world will end!_

            "We've moving…" My dad started to edge towards the small moving truck. I knew that my dad wanted to keep a general peace but it was obvious that this guy expected us to go along with his wishes. I would show him.

            "No, we're not. The parking lot is a whole block away and we have a lot of boxes! So this idiot has to just park somewhere else." There was no way that I, Makino Tsukushi, was going to tolerate this guy at all. 

            "I can't believe him." I heard Soujirou whisper to the longhaired boy.

            "You know Doumyouji and his _precious_ parking spot." I could practically hear the longhaired guy rolling his eyes. 

            "Move _my_ car? Move _my_ car? You deserve to have to haul those boxed around!" The boy, who was obviously called Doumyouji, asked me incredulously. 

            "Let her move in Doumyouji." Rui's voice made my angry demeanor melt. I turned to him and smiled gratefully. Doumyouji glared at Rui. "Your car will be okay in the parking lot." 

            "It could get stolen or scratched! I think this ugly girl is just a little less important than an eighty-thousand dollar car!" Doumyouji insisted. That was it. Twice today I had been called ugly. I'm not vain but blatant insults can grate on my nerves. I tried to be calm.

            "You're really starting to piss me off." _Ah yes, that's the way to keep calm. _"Maybe you can cash in your car for a brain! I'm not moving so you're just going to have to think of an alternative!" I flounced back towards the moving truck where I picked up another box. 

            "Listen to me you little-" Doumyouji was cut off by Rui. 

            "Doumyouji…" Rui's tone spoke of warning. This did not stop Doumyouji from tripping me when I walked by. I fell right in my box as I hit the ground, hearing something inside break. Maybe even several things. I got up, pretending that nothing had happened, dragging my smashed box inside. I felt mature about the whole thing, just ignoring the overly obnoxious boy. That was until he passed me in the hallway and I tripped him. 

            _Very mature Tsukushi. _

            "Stupid girl." Doumyouji spat at me as he got up. 

            "Stupid boy!" I countered. _Gee, I'm really getting off to a great start with all my roommates! _Of course to be fair, I was only really there so I could be near Rui. Rui who had defended me today, which made me put a whole new outlook on this transferring thing. But still, I wished that Doumyouji didn't live there. Oh well, I'm sure that if we avoided each other, then we wouldn't have to worry about the whole thing that much. Maybe it would all blow over. Rui walked past me, carrying a box. I shot him another grateful look. 

            It took a lot of trips to get all the boxes up the stairs but we made it. It was actually kind of fun. I wondered what I had broken on accident. I found out it was the glass butterfly that Rui had won at a carnival and given to me. My parents had a bit of a tearful good-bye but left after everything was moved. I had to promise them about a million times that I would call them though. Why do parents make such a big deal about it? Finally while unpacking Rui came in. 

            "Hey Rui." I greeted him as if we were still in high school. He sat down on my bed.

            "Hello." For some reason this is always what he said to me in greeting. There was no hi's or hey's from Hanazawa Rui or so it seemed. "What are you doing here?"

            "I'm going to college!" I answered back. There was a slight silence at this point. 

            "Don't tell me then." Rui sounded nonchalant about the whole thing. I turned back to him.

            "I did tell you, I'm going to college here. They have a better teaching program." I explained. I was majoring in teaching, so the excuse was believable. 

            "It's almost dinner time." Rui announced.

            "Hey, what do you guys want on your pizza?" Soujirou yelled from somewhere downstairs. 

            "Extra cheese and olives!" I yelled back, knowing that it was me and Rui's favorite kind of pizza.

            "Pepperoni!" Akira's voice came from somewhere downstairs.

            "Meat Lover's!" Doumyouji's voice came from somewhere on the same floor as us. 

            "I can't afford that many pizzas!" Soujirou yelled back. If we were going to have to make a compromise I was all for it but I wondered how Doumyouji would take it.

            "I'll buy them!" Doumyouji yelled back. I wondered if other houses ever called ours in for disturbing the peace. We were definitely going to have to work on that. It dawned on me that I had seen no one else in the house at all other than the four boys and myself. We couldn't be the only ones though.

            "Rui, does anyone else live here?" I asked him. 

            "Me, you, Akira, Soujirou and Doumyouji " Rui listed off. I gaped. I was the only girl in the whole house? No wonder Soujirou and the longhaired boy whom I assumed was Akira acted so surprised. 

            _Now I'm in a house full of men…I've seen the living room, goodness knows what their rooms look like! Looks like it was a good thing that I came. _It didn't take long for the pizzas to get there, they were set out on the living room table while Soujirou got several pop bottles from the kitchen. The whole place needed a good cleaning. I opened the extra cheese and olives on the first try so I was pretty happy. Doumyouji looked at my pizza and made a slight face.

            "How quaint." He muttered. I was tempted to throw my pizza at him but decided against it. 

            "Doumyouji, did you go visit what's-her-name today? She kept calling yesterday." Akira complained. 

            "No." Doumyouji's rather blunt harsh tone. "That girl is about as interesting as a piece of paper." 

            "Just as flat too." Soujirou added in. Him and Akira slapped each other high five over the table. 

            "What are you going to do tonight Rui?" Akira asked my best friend. "Still gonna keep it a mystery from us?" I turned towards Rui questioningly. I had heard nothing of this so of course I was just dying to know what Akira was talking about.

            "I'm going to go." Rui stood up suddenly. "Good night." 

            "Rui, where are you going?" I asked him but he had already walked out of the living room. 

            "Do you and Rui know each other?" Soujirou inquired. 

            "Yes. We grew up together. We're only a couple months apart on birthdays." I informed them. "Hasn't he said anything about me?"

            "He never says anything." Doumyouji's deadpan voice made my eyebrow twitch slightly.

            "Really? I had no idea." I said sarcastically. "Maybe if you could listen a little better you'd hear him talk." 

            "Soujirou," Doumyouji was pointedly ignoring me. "Haven't you figured it out yet? Rui obviously likes some girl." As soon as the words left his mouth I felt stunned. I should have known it would happen, Rui wasn't the type to just sit around forever. Then I realized that it was _Doumyouji_ saying it. He wasn't the smartest guy in the world so he could most definitely be wrong. All the same, I wasn't very hungry anymore and decided to go to bed. I tried to quietly slip away of course. No need to explain anything.

            "Where are you going?" Akira asked me. I flinched knowing that I was going to have to come up with something to get away.

            "I don't feel that great. I'm going to bed." I explained to them.

            "At seven?" Doumyouji obviously didn't believe me. "On a Saturday? Are your parents coming to tuck you in?" I hated that look, I decided. The way his lips were curved upwards and the way his he leaned forward slightly, expecting, no, _wanting_ a reaction to it. 

            "Doumyouji, that's not the way to get a girl into bed." Soujirou informed the curly haired boy. I watched Doumyouji's face go from confident to embarrassed. It was great. 

            "Like I'd want _that_ in bed." Doumyouji retorted. I couldn't stop my hands going to my hips. Force of habit.

            "Like you could get anything into bed!" I felt like I was in third grade again. Which was not exactly what I was looking for at the moment. Plus I could tell from the slight heat in my face that I was probably blushing a little. _That probably looks really great considering the comment from Soujirou…_I decided to save my dignity by marching out of the room. It was a good idea after all. 

            "Doumyouji, you can't be mean!" My ears perked up at Akira defending me. He wasn't so bad after all. "You've got to tease her a little, that's how you get them into bed!" My face dropped. Maybe Akira wasn't so great after all. I continued up into my room, wondering what Rui was doing.

            He couldn't be in love with some girl! That was just Doumyouji being stupid! Plus how does being in love make you leave your house? No, it was probably Rui being Rui or so I would like to think. 

_______

            How does chapter one suit you? OH! Guess what? My computer's windows media player is kind of retarded, so I can only watch select episodes of things. I watched episode eleven of Ayashi no Ceres (In some countries, twins are synonymous with lovers. Yeah. Riiiiiight.) So then I was going through Hana Yori Dango eps. None of them worked. But one file did. THE HANA YORI DANGO MOVIE!!! So I came up with this great little commercial! Ahem.

Narrator: Akira, Adolescence of Utena, and The End of Evangelion. These were all anime films that blew your mind away in a tapestry of artistic beauty and important messages. But none are as great as the…Hana Yori Dango movie. For it has an important message too: Besides the opening credits, they really can't dance…

Oh I am brilliant! But hey, that movie was so funny!!! When did Rui become so talented with all his different instruments? But hey doesn't that last scene prove that Rui can't actually play anything? I mean I always suspected that he couldn't play the violin worth crap and had a hidden tape recorder somewhere but when he started to play the piano and "Stepping Out" comes on I just don't even know what to say to that! Then Tsukushi's dance where she has to do like fifty thousand twirls and everyone makes fun of her when she trips! She does have the coolest outfit I've ever seen her wear in the movie. (Green berets look great on her!) Plus look at Doumyouji! Okay I'm sorry but that boy cannot dance at all! Okay there's the Pelvic-Thrusting Move of Doom. (That's class right there) But now there's the Look-I'm-A-Dead-Chicken-On-Crack Walk! You know what I'm talking about! Woah, and where were Akira and Nishikado? ALWAYS OFF CAMERA!!! I mean I know Doumyouji is the most important character but if Asai gets to be on camera then so should Akira and Nishikado! They're WAY cooler. I have my theories that Shigeru and Tsubaki did make the movie. Did you see that ambulance driving wildly through the street when Sakurako's leg broke? I WONDER WHO WAS DRIVING??? Okay I'm a freak and I'll shut up now. But just remember this about this particular AU I'm writing. There's no way I'm getting beaten out by the movie for people looking half drunk while dancing!  


	2. Doumyouji Has Absolutely No Future As A ...

Say good-bye! (Sorry, my little brother just HAD to see the Hana Yori Dango movie after I had like just watched it. Now I've got Stepping Out stuck in my head.) Oh my poor headache. I've been working hard on a project but I don't think I'll EVER get it done with. (Oh Teresa, you don't know what it is, but when you do you'll understand completely.) I've also been making MORE additions to the TOA cast, Teresa. It's getting out of hand. I mean between, Lo, Lollo, Jade, Ellamaraun, Michellarena, Ruid, Aeris, and Ember, Legends of Annapurna is going to be one big ass book. Oh well. I LOVE THEM ALL! Here goes.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango, but rest assured, if I did, yes I would create the character socks with the songs. (Doumyouji socks? I WOULD LOVE THEM!) 

Warning: Cussing. 'o.o" (THE OFFICIAL DOUMYOUJI FACE!)

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Two

_"I trace the cord back to the wall,_

_No wonder it was never plugged in at all,_

_I took my time, I hurried up,_

_The choice was mine didn't think enough,"_

_            -Brian's Song _by Blink 182

            "Why does the kitchen look like this?" I asked as I entered it for breakfast. Now normally, kitchens are expected to have a few dishes in the sink. This one was piled high with dishes. I sighed loudly. If anything was going to get clean, I was going to have to be the one cleaning it. Akira and Soujirou looked up from their bowls of Lucky Charms.

            "This place doesn't have a dish washer!" Soujirou told me in immediate defense of himself. 

            "Rui will get bored and do the dishes in a few days. No big deal." Akira shrugged.

            "It is a big deal. You can't live like pigs you know. Or I won't anyway. From now on, we should all take turns doing chores." I explained to the two boys who looked almost horrified with the suggestion.

            "Chores?" Soujirou said the word, cocking his head to one side. "Us?"

            "Do you have a hearing problem? Look, I'll do the dishes today and Soujirou you can clean up the living room. Akira, you'll mop the floors." I assigned each of them a task. 

            "Why doesn't Rui or Doumyouji have to do anything?" Akira whined. I rolled my eyes.

            "Rui can…clean upstairs and Doumyouji can clean the bathrooms." I knew there were three bathrooms in all. I hadn't been in the third one yet as the only door to it was in Doumyouji's room, meaning it was Doumyouji's. The other two had towels and things littering them. 

            "I can clean what?" The irritating voice asked from behind me. I whirled around to see Doumyouji with one eyebrow raised in challenge. 

            "The bathrooms. Do you need it spelled out?" I asked him. Doumyouji really needed to be put in his place sometimes! I had only been there since yesterday and I still couldn't figure out how the others put up with anything. 

            "I _don't_ clean." Doumyouji said slowly. 

            "Gee, I guess your going to have to learn then." I was trying so hard not to start laughing at the face Doumyouji was making. It was somewhere between bewildered and angry.

            "Learn what?" Rui was rubbing his eyes before seeing Akira and Soujirou. "Hey you better have left me some." 

            "Good morning Rui!" I chirped happily, glad to see him again. He was already pulling a chair up at the table.

            "Good morning Rui!" Doumyouji did a rather terrible impression of me in a squeaky voice. I glared at him.

            "Mmm…'morning Tsukushi." Rui didn't look that awake, which didn't surprise me. Akira clapped him on the back.

            "So how late we're we out? Eleven, midnight?" Akira guessed with a grin, obviously knowing the answer.

            "Three." Rui told him. My mouth dropped open.

            "Where were you?" I questioned him.

            "Places." Rui was slipping into his I-don't-want-to-have-a-conversation mode so I stopped inquiring about the whereabouts of my best friend. Like I said, it was probably something weird. 

            "What are you, his mom?" Doumyouji asked me. "Or rather the jealous girlfriend?" My mouth tightened considerably. I chose not to answer back to him. After all, the best way to deal with someone like Doumyouji was really to just ignore him.

            "Tsukushi isn't my girlfriend." Rui told him as if commenting on the weather. 

            "I knew even you had more taste than that." Doumyouji concluded. I threw the sponge I had just picked up at Doumyouji's face. It hit him perfectly. The sponge slid to the floor. 

            "If your just gonna sit around in talk, then you can get to work on those bathrooms!" I put my hands on my hips. I was ready to just punch Doumyouji in the face. 

            "I'm not going to scrub out those bathrooms! It's okay for someone like _you_. I'm going somewhere." Doumyouji told me. I didn't have to ask what he meant by that last comment. Okay, so my family wasn't spectacularly wealthy, big deal. Even if Doumyouji was rich, it didn't mean he should sit around flaunting it all the time.

            "Your going to a party?" Soujirou asked right as I was about to say something in reply. I shut my mouth though. Might as well not drag it out. 

            "No. I'm visiting Tsubaki." Doumyouji told them. 

            "Hey, say hello to Tsubaki for me!" Akira piped up, before shoveling more Lucky Charms in his mouth. 

            "I will. But you guys?" Doumyouji paused questioningly.

            "What?" Soujirou asked. 

            "How many times have I told you?" Doumyouji marched over to the table, grabbing the Lucky Charms box. "These are _my_ Lucky Charms." I rolled my eyes. Just as Doumyouji was leaving though I decided to say something.

            "Well I guess you can just clean the bathrooms later!" I called out. Doumyouji turned, his brow twitching in irritation. He made an annoyed noise before turning and leaving. 

            Finally I got to work, scrubbing all the dishes clean. It took me an hour and I'm fast at doing dishes. When I was done, I found Rui looking completely hypnotized while vacuuming the same foot of carpeting over and over again. I shook my head and walked off. Soujirou had actually done a good job cleaning the living room, until I found out he had shoved all the trash under the couch. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Akira was moping all wrong; obviously he had never used a mop. I showed him how it was done and he got to work. It was a good thing I had come along. 

            Doumyouji did get back a little while later. I stood there waiting with a bucket full of cleaning products and a scrub brush. As soon as he got his jacket off, I handed it to him. He glared at me but walked off with them towards the downstairs bathroom. I checked on Rui, who had finally woken up and finished vacuuming. Then I found Soujirou who had finished cleaning up the garbage and was beating Akira at Mario Kart. The floors were nicely mopped. The whole house was clean. I decided to bravely check on Doumyouji.

            I entered the bathroom, seeing that Doumyouji was sitting there, scrubbing the mirror with a scrub brush. I winced. He could scratch the glass easily doing that. 

            "Doumyouji, you can't use a scrub brush on glass!" I told him, taking the scrub brush from him. "Use this rag." I handed him a rag out of the bucket. He gave me a look, which meant to say I wasn't welcome telling him what to do.

            "Since when did you order us all around?" Doumyouji asked, compliantly cleaning the mirror with the rag. I picked up the bottle of cleaning solution. It was the tile cleaner. I should have known better.

            "Why are you using tile cleaner on a mirror?" I quirked an eyebrow at him. "You can read, right?" 

            "You know what? I don't clean that often so you can just excuse me for not being up with you poor people on cleaning products!" Doumyouji threw the rag down in frustration. I couldn't help it. The poor people comment made me upset. Call it a weak point. I looked away from the curly haired boy immediately. 

            "Fine, just go. I'll clean the bathrooms." I said in a tired voice. I was a little tired from having to over see the cleaning all day but I was also tired of going at it with Doumyouji. 

            "Are you sure?" Doumyouji's deep voice questioned. 

            "Just go." I insisted, taking the rag that he had thrown down and started to clean the mirror, the opposite side of where he had been cleaning. 

            "What if I don't want to?" Doumyouji crossed his arms, which I saw only out of the corner of my eyes. 

            "I don't want this poor person to hold you up." There was an edge of bitterness in my voice that I'd admit. I wish it didn't show that much, how his comment bothered me. 

            "Well I'm staying." Doumyouji amended. There was a silence. "Are you really poor?" I snapped, dropping the rag in frustration. 

            "Mind your own business Doumyouji!" I stalked right out of the bathroom, going down a side hall, and falling to my knees. Even though I hated myself for doing it, I started to cry. Not just because of the poor thing but also about the chance that Rui had fallen for another girl. That I missed my parents, I missed my friends from my old college, and I missed Makiko. I dried my tears as soon as I could. No use crying about it now I told myself. I looked up to see someone standing there, watching me with wide eyes. 

            "D-Doumyouji!" I knew it was obvious I had been crying and who knew how long he had been standing there. "What do you want?" I was trying to pretend I hadn't been crying, maybe some part of me thought he'd forget or something.

            "Why are you crying?" Doumyouji asked me, kneeling down beside me. 

            "I'm not, I just got some dust in my eyes! You guys never clean in here do you?" I joked even though I could tell from the expression on his face that he knew I was lying. 

            "Will you show me how to clean?" Doumyouji suddenly asked after a long silence. He was looking at the floor when he asked. I laughed a little. It was funny to think of Doumyouji really cleaning but I went with it.

            "Sure." I agreed, getting up and leading him into the bathroom. It was probably the toughest lesson ever. Doumyouji was about as inexperienced as an ant would be. I helped him out with the second bathroom because personally I still didn't think he was ready to go on his own. Then he actually asked me to help with his bathroom. Going into Doumyouji's bedroom, I was amazed at all the things. A huge bed for one thing plus a computer, TV and VCR, and a few game systems. 

            "Wow." The word popped out of my mouth as I looked out his huge window. Much like my room, it had a really nice view of the park out behind all the houses. 

            "Well, I couldn't take much less." Doumyouji commented arrogantly. "After all, my dad did pay for this whole street of houses to be built." I rolled my eyes. Doumyouji was obviously bragging. 

            "Whoop dee doo." The sarcastic reply came out of my mouth, spoiling the silent and somewhat nice atmosphere that had settled over us. It seemed that if neither of us talked, we got along okay. 

            "You know, most people would die to be where you are right now." Doumyouji told me importantly.

            "What, cleaning bathrooms?" I asked in confusion. 

            "No, hanging out with me." Doumyouji explained, looking only slightly annoyed by my apparent lack of a grasp on the situation.

            "Gee, I'm so lucky." _This guy isn't for real, right? There must be a lot of stupid people out in the world._

            "I'd be willing to let you hang out with me." Doumyouji smiled smugly at his own reflection in the mirror. "But you have to do me a favor." I gave him an odd look. _What does he mean "favor"? I have a bad feeling about this._

            "What do you mean?" I questioned him. Doumyouji was kind of strange. 

            "Well, being as rich as I am, I'm quite popular. Unfortunately this means that a bunch of uninteresting, dimwitted girls are after me." Doumyouji informed me. _Sounds like a perfect match if you ask me…_

            "So this has what to do with me?" I asked. _Where the hell is this going? I wish he'd just say it instead if dragging it out. _

            "Therefore, I've come up with a solution. I need a girlfriend." Doumyouji pronounced. I was about to ask who his girlfriend was going to be when it hit me.

            Doumyouji was talking about me.

            My mouth felt like it was going to hit the floor. "There's no way-" Doumyouji cut me off.

            "We wouldn't actually be going out, it would just be for show." Doumyouji began to explain, his speech rapidly speeding up. 

            "I won't." I answered. This was probably the strangest request ever given to me. Well maybe the time Rui asked if I could buy slugs and fly them on albatrosses was a tad bit stranger but it was a close contest in my mind. 

            "I could pay." Doumyouji offered. I had to admit, my interest peaked a little bit. I was thinking about getting a part time job after all. Of course this really wasn't what I had in mind though. 

            "Why me?" I asked.

            "Two reasons. One, you could probably handle the stupid girls who want to go out with me, and two, the only other person I could think of is just too annoying." Doumyouji scrunched up his face. "I couldn't even pretend to like her…"

            "Are you serious about this? Paying me and all?" I inquired. Although part of my mind said it was morally wrong to get paid to do this sort of thing, I couldn't help but try to shut it out. After all, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. And let's face it, I could use the money. 

            "You don't think I could?" Doumyouji asked sharply as if I were somehow saying he was less of a person. I stared out the window thinking quietly to myself. I realized why I couldn't. Rui. I was in love with Rui and there was no way I could pretend to-

            My thoughts were cut off as I focused on a couple walking through the park. I almost gasped as I recognized Rui; the other was a beautiful girl with long lustrous locks of hair. They were holding hands, walking very close to each other. I turned away from the window immediately. My emotions were so blurred, I don't know what made me think I could decide anything important when I was so upset and angry. Betrayed was really the best word for it. Hadn't I given up all my friends and left my college for him? I felt like I had been slapped in the face by my own gesture. I turned to Doumyouji and opened my mouth.

            "I'll do it." 

______

            So I've made a lot of dumb choices in life. I once decided to see what would happen if I set a towel on fire. This resulted in our bathroom almost catching on fire in my younger days. Another time, I ate all my Halloween candy in one night with Rui. We were both sick to our stomachs, fighting over the toilet. So I knew that this was probably the dumbest choice any human on the face of the planet could make.

            Immediately after I got dressed on Monday morning in a pair of plain jeans and a t-shirt I went downstairs. All four boys were eating breakfast. They hadn't seen me the night before, as I was too busy moping in my room about Rui. Doumyouji looked up and eyed me critically. He took me by the wrist and marched me right back up to my room. He began to dig through my closet.

            "I don't care if it is just for show, no girlfriend of mine is wearing _that_ out in public." Doumyouji eyed my outfit distastefully. 

            "I like these pants!" I protested as a black skirt hit me in the face. Then a white button up blouse.

            "Looks like I have to take you shopping." Doumyouji sighed. I was going to kill him. 

            "Maybe I should take you shopping!" I snapped back at him. Doumyouji looked at his own rather stylish outfit.

            "There's nothing wrong with _my_ clothes." He told me before I started to take off my t-shirt. I realized he was still in the room, looking at me and gave him a rather interesting expression that suggested he might die if he didn't leave my room immediately. He backed out and shut the door. I was forced to change my shoes from comfortable tennis shoes to black formal shoes to match my skirt. I walked out of the room.

            "There, are you satisfied?" I asked him, already aggravated that I actually changed my clothes.

            "Can't you do something with your hair?" Doumyouji questioned. My hair went down to my shoulders in a plain style, partly because I had never cut it any other way. I gave him a sour look before going back inside my room and grabbing a scrunchie, twisting my hair into a messy bun. 

            "Am I fit for public yet?" I asked sarcastically. _I better be getting paid a whole lot if I have to put up with this!_

            "It'll do." Doumyouji still looked a little less than satisfied. As if it were my fault! 

            "Whatever." I went downstairs again, all three boys looked up this time. 

            "Hey if you're tired and you look at Tsukushi like this," Akira put his head to one side and squinted. "She kind of looks decent." 

            "Maybe Doumyouji needs glasses." Soujirou joined in. _Great, I have to be the brunt of these stupid jokes? I am going to kill Doumyouji!_

            "Hello Tsukushi." Rui greeted me, seeming a little distant. I wondered how the news had affected him. Probably not that much now that he had his beautiful girlfriend. I tried not to be bitter about it, pushing down all my upset deep into the back of my mind. 

            "Hey Rui." I smiled at him, more out of habit than anything. I noticed that they were all eating Poptarts. "Hey I want one!"

            "Doumyouji just ate the last one." Akira shrugged. _He made me change my clothes AND he ate the last Poptart? I want a bonus…_

            "What time is it?" I asked. 

            "Eight thirty." Soujirou informed me, looking at his watch.

            "Argh! I have a class at nine! It's on the other side of the campus!" The extra time used to change had wasted my eating time. I couldn't even grab a Poptart. "I have to go!" I grabbed my book bag as I ran out the door, hoping the bus system was better than my old college. As I was walking down the path from our house to the sidewalk, I noticed a shining black convertible parked right outside. 

            _This must be Doumyouji's precious car. _I had half a mind to go and slash the tires to vent frustration but went against that thought, walking as quickly as I could towards the bus stop. I heard a car coming at a very illegal sounding speed for a college campus where the speed limit was twenty miles per hour. The car could've stopped on a dime the way that it easily stopped right next to me. It was the black convertible, with Doumyouji sitting in the driver seat looking rather irritated.

            "You can't walk! Get in." Doumyouji told me. 

            "Why not? I've got legs." I told him patiently. A bus was pulling up at the stop, twenty yards away. I could make it if I ran.

            "You don't understand anything do you?" Doumyouji shook his head. "Just get in, I'm giving you a ride." I got in the car actually feeling kind of lucky that I got to ride in such a great car. Of course I was not going to give Doumyouji the satisfaction so I tried to arrange my face into a mildly bored expression. Doumyouji took off at such a fast speed that I had barely gotten my seat belt on but was thrown against the seat. "I don't usually just let people ride in this car you know." 

            "Someone could get their fingerprints on it and then who knows what would happen?" I rolled my eyes at him. He looked slightly less than amused.

            "Have you ever dated anyone before?" Doumyouji suddenly asked as we took a corner so sharp I was sure the car was going to flip. 

            "Well…no." I finally answered. "Could you slow down a little? I don't think we need to break the sound barrier." I was trying to jump off the dating subject. All through high school I had used the excuse that I was too busy and had too many things to do to date people. What I realized later was that I didn't want to date anyone but Rui. 

            "That explains a lot." Doumyouji stated. 

            "Have _you_ ever dated anyone before?" I inquired. Silence was my only answer for a little bit.

            "…No…" Doumyouji admitted sheepishly. I was going to kill him. I was fully ready to commit homicide and see if I could get acquitted for doing the whole world a favor. Not that I'd have to worry about at it, the speed we were currently going, if we hit anything it would be the end of both of our lives. I just hoped that whatever happened after we died, I wouldn't have to endure eternal punishment by being in the same place as Doumyouji.

            "Then stop going around acting like you know everything!" I snapped at him. We pulled up outside the psychology building where I had my first class. A crowd of girls began to run up towards the car but spotted me and stopped dead in their tracks. I was about to get out of the car when Doumyouji got out, then opened my door for me, offering me a hand to get out. I took it, putting an innocent look on my face before smashing my heel into his toes as I got out. I felt incredibly justified right then.

            "You idiotic…" Doumyouji trailed off, trying to keep his face straight as he could. "I'll see you later Tsukushi." He said the last part loudly. I felt like I was in a play.

            "See you." I replied through clenched teeth. _I'd rather get hit by a bus…_Doumyouji leaned over and pecked me on the cheek. I wanted to punch him in the face so badly that I had to grind my fist into my book bag to make sure I didn't. I would punch him later, when no one else was around. 

            I walked off, passing the same group of girls who had stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of me in Doumyouji's car. They were all glaring at me murderously and suddenly I wondered nervously if all my homicidal threats were coming back to haunt me. I tried to ignore them the best I could. I went into the psychology building feeling better. I loved psychology and was thinking of switching my major to it. I walked into my classroom and looked for a good seat to sit in. There were only a few empty seats. All of them were next to boys except one. I sat there. 

            "Hey, I don't think I've seen you before." The girl sitting next to me spoke. "I'm Yuuki."

            "Tsukushi." I introduced myself. "I just transferred here."

            "Really? Which house do you live in?" Yuuki asked me. "I'm in house F6." 

            "I'm in house F4, I guess that means we're practically neighbors." I smiled at her. We were only separated by one house, F5, but I didn't think it would make a big difference. 

            "F4?" Yuuki looked astonished. I don't think she could have looked more so unless I had proved that there was no sun. "No way!"

            "Um, yeah, F4." I felt a little embarrassed. The girl in front of Yuuki turned around. She was really pretty with honey-colored hair and big expressive eyes. Like a doll almost.

            "The F4 house?" She asked in slight disbelief. "Your not that girl everyone is talking about are you? The girl that drove up this morning in Doumyouji's car?" 

            "How did you know that?" I asked. 

            "Everyone is talking about it." She replied airily. "I'm Sanyou Sakurako." 

            "I'm Makino Tsukushi. Why is everyone talking about it? It's not that big of a deal, right?" I asked tentatively. I could already tell that to everyone else it was a big deal.

            "It's Doumyouji, that's why! Girls have been trying all year to get him to go out with them!" Sakurako exclaimed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Now suddenly you transfer here and you're his girlfriend?"

            "Well…" I wished I could deny it and then start making fun of Doumyouji. Unfortunately I knew what I had to do. "Sometimes people just click." _And sometimes people are paid to click. _

            "I wish I had your luck!" Yuuki jumped in. "Living in the F4 house, I think all the F4 boys are so cute! Not only that but also bagging the richest and cutest guy at this whole college!" I smiled weakly. _Doumyouji is the cutest guy at this campus? That sure brings its prospects down…_I knew that somehow, this whole thing was going to turn into a big mess really fast. 

            _What have I gotten myself into?_

_______

            CHAPTER IS FINISHED! Ah, well you should have known that I couldn't possibly just sit back and not throw a plot twist in. Of course, from here on out it's not going to get any less complicated. Don't worry, I'm not rushing anything. In fact, I'm taking things just a tad bit slow…which says something…though what it is, I don't know! Well I'm going to bed. I have the cold from hell and it's one in the morning! More tomorrow…I think…

My Favorite Line From This Chapter: "How many times have I told you? These are _my_ Lucky Charms!" 


	3. Can You Feel The Love Tonight? Apparentl...

Okay so I've woken up, finished off Garth Nix's _Lirael_ and eaten a bowl of Cheerio's. Are they really cheery? Oh lame joke time! What's Suzaku's favorite cereal? _Chicheerio's_! OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! Yeah, I'm really funny aren't I? I still have a cold. (IS THERE NO JUSTICE?) I might get to skip school tomorrow though if the cold persists. It better because being sick on weekends isn't my idea of fun. Oh well. Well my stereo is right in reach. Everyone's a little queer, why can't she be a little straight? Ehehehehehehehehe! (Sad when your spell check has that documented as an actual word.) Here's a new chapter just for you. (And all the other fans out there…) Oh, and M.B.B. (Was that it?) actually I have watched more than the movie, I just happen to go on a very long rant about the movie. I can understand the confusion. Thanks for all the reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango. I do own the rather lame joke I just made up. Well parts of it anyway. Oi Pip! (For two whole days at school, I said this instead of cussing or saying hello. It worked wonderfully.) 

Warning: This could be hazardous to your health. Just kidding. Cussing, pretty damn mild violence and of course the occasional annoying girl…

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Three

_"Motivation,_

_Such an aggravation,_

_Accusations,_

_Don't know where to take them,_

_Inspirations,_

_Getting hard to fake it,_

_Concentration,_

_Never want to break it,_

_Situation,_

_Never what you wanted to be,"_

-A Random Song Quote 

I had just gotten out of my first day of classes. I had made other new friends besides Yuuki and Sakurako. One of them was walking with me out of the building. His name was Kazuya. He had red hair and was slightly goofy but seemed like a pretty okay person in my mind.

"I'm in house F3! I can't believe we live next to each other!" Kazuya exclaimed. "You'll have to come over and visit!"

"That sounds like fun." I replied with a friendly smile.

"I've never met Doumyouji before, everyone says he's really cool. Will you introduce me?" Kazuya asked with an eager face. I frowned slightly. I had forgotten Doumyouji in the course of the day even though people were talking about me wherever I went. Now I realized I would have to see him again. _Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll get hit by a bus. _My morbid thoughts had run away from me.

"Um, I guess." I shrugged a little. "Where's the nearest bus stop?" I asked as we emerged into the parking lot. I was stopped dead in my tracks by the sight of a very familiar black convertible. Doumyouji was leaning against his car with his arms crossed coolly. A girl with slightly weird spider web like bangs was talking to him. I put my head down, ducking a little behind Kazuya, hoping that he wouldn't see me.

_Please don't let him see me, please don't let him see me, please don't let him see me, please don't let him-_

"Hey Tsukushi!" Doumyouji's voice interrupted my pleading thoughts. There was absolutely no justice in the whole world. Oh well. He was running up to me and Kazuya was standing there giving me a confused look. I was getting a migraine, though I hoped it was a brain tumor and I only had five seconds to live.

"Hi Doumyouji." I greeted him in a slightly rehearsed voice. _Look cheerful, he's supposed to be your boyfriend, remember?_

"Come over here and meet Asai." Doumyouji tugged on my arm. My face twitched but I put on my best fake smile before following him over towards the girl with the odd hair. "Asai, I don't believe you've met my _girlfriend." He put emphasis on the last word and I wondered if he was trying to get the girl to go away._

"Girlfriend?" Asai's voice was rather grating and I grimaced slightly. "Don't tell me those silly rumors are true!"

"Yes they are." Doumyouji looked incredibly happy. I dug my elbow into his ribcage just to wipe that smug look off his face.

"I'm pleased to meet you. I'm Makino Tsukushi." I extended a hand towards her. Asai sniffed at it, sticking her nose in the air.

"Doumyouji, you could do so much better than this!" Asai complained. "Let's leave this girl and go have dinner some where." I thought that it was a good idea myself. Doumyouji and this girl deserved each other. _May they never breed because a Doumyouji with that voice could definitely cause a lot of headaches. _But I knew I had to stick up for myself, besides the fact that if I couldn't punch Doumyouji, I wouldn't mind venting some frustration on this girl's face.

"Doumyouji and _I _are going out to dinner." I was trying hard not to start laughing of course. Asai looked rather like she wanted to strangle me but wouldn't dare with Doumyouji being there. "Sorry."

"Hmph!" Asai made her huffy noise before stalking off.

"Finally!" Doumyouji sighed in relief. "I thought you were never coming out of that building!"

"Tsukushi!" Kazuya called out. "Wait for me!"

"Oh sorry Kazuya." I giggled. "We had a bit of an emergency it seemed." I shot Doumyouji a dirty look. I had to admit I was a rather good actress but I had a feeling that Asai wasn't just going to leave me alone. I hadn't come to a new college to make enemies.

"Are you Doumyouji?" Kazuya asked him. Doumyouji looked at him with a slight distaste.

"That's me." Doumyouji looked as if he did not want to talk to Kazuya. It was time for my revenge.

"Oh Doumyouji dear! You _have _to meet Kazuya!" My innocent grin was caused merely by the way Doumyouji's face had twisted slightly when he realized he was trapped. "Kazuya this is Doumyouji."

"Hello! I've heard so much about you." Kazuya's face was bright with enthusiasm.

"Really?" Doumyouji looked as though he was stopping himself from hitting something. "We have to go."

"We do?" I asked him curiously.

"Yeah, I'm taking you to dinner, _remember_?" Doumyouji nodded his head obviously towards the car. I rolled my eyes.

"Go to hell." I muttered.

"What was that?" Doumyouji questioned me.

"Dinner would be swell." I quickly covered up. "I guess I should be going Kazuya, I'll see you around okay?"

"Of course!" Kazuya gave me the biggest, dopiest grin I have ever seen. "See you!" He ran off.

"I'm going to kill you." I threatened Doumyouji as we got in the car. "What, am I your personal bodyguard? I have to ward off girls?"

"That's kind of the idea." Doumyouji started the car, before pulling out and ripping out of the parking lot at an alarming rate.

"Ever hear of a speed limit?" I cracked. We went right by a cop car and they actually waved at Doumyouji. I shook my head in disbelief. The whole world was against me.

"I know how to drive." Doumyouji suddenly turned, missing another car by inches. I knew it, I was doomed. There was no way I could survive one more car ride with Doumyouji. The law of averages said so.

"I can tell." I watched as we sped right past our house. "Hey! That's our house!" Doumyouji did not seem alarmed. "Where are we going?"

"I have to take you shopping and I did say I was going to take you to dinner." Doumyouji explained.

"I don't want to go shopping." I told him sullenly.

"You aren't like most girls are you?" Doumyouji peered at me curiously. "Most girls would love for me to take them shopping."

"Most girls are stupid then." I crossed my arms. "You don't have to buy me clothes, I mean how long are we going to 'go out' for anyway?" In my mind when I agreed to it, I imagined I was agreeing to a month or two at most.

"As long I need to." Doumyouji pulled into a spot in front of an expensive looking boutique. I made a face. I usually shopped in normal department stores, being known to be a bargain hunter. I doubted this store would have a clearance rack. My motto for clothing was affordable and comfortable. Seeing some of the outfits in the windows, I doubted whether anything contained both.

"Can't we go somewhere else?" I whined slightly.

"Come on." Doumyouji tugged on my arm and I was a bit sick of getting tugged around like some sort of dog. I sighed and walked into the store. Doumyouji immediately began looking through racks. I sulkily looked around. There was a pretty sweater on one mannequin that I wouldn't mind having. I looked at the price tag. No sweater should cost that much money!

"Oh well." I muttered. I hoped that this little shopping trip wasn't coming out of my pay. I tried to keep my mind on things I would buy with my money. I would get all my family presents. That would be nice. Or maybe I could something nice for myself. I could use something nice after this torture.

"Here." Doumyouji handed me an armload of clothes. "Try these on." I sighed. I went into the dressing rooms where a lady gave me a number. I tried on the first outfit. It was a mini-skirt and button up shirt with a small jacket over it that all matched. I blinked at my reflection. The skirt showed off most of my legs. I wasn't use to being exposed like that so I tried to pull the skirt down nervously.

"Hey, come out so I can see!" Doumyouji called out. I grimaced. There was no way I wanted him to see me like this. Even so, I walked out, feeling completely ridiculous. Doumyouji's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head.

"What?" I asked defensively, putting my hands on my hips.

"We are definitely getting that one." Doumyouji looked as if he were in a bit of a daze. I raised my eyebrows suspiciously. All the same I could feel heat rising to my face.

"Don't get any funny ideas!" I told him. "I'm just posing as your girlfriend! Besides," I paused as I turned to walk back into the dressing room. "There's not enough money in the world to convince me to do that." 

"Like I wanted to do anything!" Doumyouji yelled back. I saw that his face had gone red much like mine probably was.

I changed out of it and put it back on its hanger. I tried on about a thousand other outfits that day. All of them made me extremely self-conscious. We ended up buying ten outfits, including the first one I tried on. I was still ticked off at the way Doumyouji had looked at me. Plus he made me change into one of the outfits. I noticed almost all my outfits had really short skirts. I didn't care what was in fashion, I wasn't some sleaze. 

We drove up to a regular looking restaurant, which was a relief because all this expensive stuff was making me feel really uncomfortable. We sat down at a table near a window and were silent.

"Was that so bad?" Doumyouji finally asked, peering at me over his menu.

"No, it was worse. That was a lot of money! You can't just sit there and spend it like that!" I was use to saving every penny and using money sparingly. Doumyouji seemed to just throw his around.

"Are you worried about me?" Doumyouji asked with a teasing smile. I wanted to throw my ice water right at his head.

"No." I said quickly. "But still, it was a total waste of money."

"Maybe I don't think so." Doumyouji told me, looking back down at his menu. "If I thought it would be a waste, I wouldn't have taken you shopping."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" I asked him. The waiter approached us and we gave our orders. As soon as he was gone though I turned back to Doumyouji. "Well?"

"Let's talk about something else." Doumyouji changed the subject. "Tomorrow, we're going to go visit my sister Tsubaki."

"Oh swell." I said sarcastically. He had siblings? More Doumyoujis running around? I hoped with all my might that his sister was not like him.

"Tsubaki still goes to this college, she's in her fourth year here. She lives in houseF6." Doumyouji informed me.

"That's Yuuki's house!" I exclaimed in recognition. "I think it's Sakurako's house too."

"Sakurako? That girl is annoying…" Doumyouji trailed off grimacing.

"She seems really nice!" I jumped in defense of the pretty girl. "Plus I say that if anyone takes the annoying cake among girls its Asai."

"You haven't met my sister's best friend yet." Doumyouji told me wryly. "Shigeru is undoubtedly the most annoying person on the face of the planet."

"Looked in a mirror lately?" I wasn't in a pleasant mood, that much I'd admit. Plus there was some guy in a table next to us giving me a disgusting look. I wish my legs were covered a little more.

"You should be a little more grateful! I took you shopping and let you ride in my car!" Doumyouji reminded me. I threw down my napkin that I had been playing with.

"I didn't ask you to do any of that!" I stomped out of the restaurant. I would walk back home, even if I didn't know this town very well. Anything was better than another second of Doumyouji. I wanted desperately to get out of the new clothes but I stayed in them anyway. I hoped Doumyouji wouldn't follow me. I crossed a street before I heard the squealing of tires and knew Doumyouji was coming. I blatantly ignored the car as if pulled up. Doumyouji got out, standing in front of me. I tried to walk around him.

"You don't know the way back! You could get lost!" Doumyouji told me, sidestepping so he could get in front of me.

"Like you care!" I angrily countered. Doumyouji grabbed my arms.

"If I didn't care I wouldn't have bothered following you!" His words struck me. I was totally frozen. _What did he just  say? _I blinked a few times in confusion. "Why don't we go home?" His eyes were pleading with me. I looked away.

"Okay." I nodded my head before going towards the car. I got into the passenger side and was surprised when Doumyouji drove at a normal speed. "Hey what happened? Decide that you weren't being chased by a tornado?" I asked him jokingly. He shrugged slightly.

"Why are you complaining? I thought you didn't like it when I drove fast." Doumyouji raised his eyebrows at me.

"Well you have to admit, when your not driving like a maniac, the chances of you dying go down." I told him intelligently. It was kind of nice when you didn't fear for your life and could comfortably watch the world outside the car.

"Hmm." Doumyouji seemed to be thinking about something else.

"What are you thinking about?" I inquired. He looked a little distracted. He turned a corner slowly.

"Nothing." Doumyouji answered, reminding me of myself sometimes. I almost laughed.

"Fine don't tell me." I looked back out the window. We pulled up in front of the house. I reached to grab my shopping bags but found that Doumyouji had already grabbed them. I whirled around in surprise and he opened the car door for me. "No one is around, I don't think you have to do that."

"Someone could be around." Doumyouji made it sound more like an excuse than anything. What was with him all of a sudden? We entered the house to find Akira and Soujirou playing video games. Akira dropped his controller, causing his car onscreen to crash and Soujirou's mouth was hanging open.

"Nice outfit." Soujirou flashed me a flirtatious grin. My face went a little red.

"Damn, Doumyouji, you know how to pick them!" Akira declared.

"Shut up!" I snapped at them before grabbing my shopping bag from Doumyouji and marching upstairs. As I entered, I hadn't even turned on the light when I saw Rui, stretched out on my bed. "Hey Rui." I closed the door behind me. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. I was kind of tired." Rui told me. His eyes focused on me. "Did Doumyouji take you shopping?"

"Y-yeah." I stammered, knowing that Rui might be thinking some of the things that Akira and Soujirou had said out loud. I sat down on the edge of my bed. When Rui and me were little kids, we use to share a bed whenever we spent the night at each other's houses. I have no clue why that thought popped up in my head.

"You want to sleep together?" Rui asked. My eyes widened considerably. My face instantly reddened. "Like when we were little kids?" I smiled a little.

"Um, sure." I said, lying down next to him. I was surprised when he put his arms around me. Rui just wasn't a mushy kind of guy.

"Tsukushi…you and Doumyouji…is it really serious?" Rui pulled me a little closer. I gulped nervously.

"No…not really serious…" I debated on what I should say. Rui had never been like this. Maybe when he found out I was going out with someone, he realized he liked me.

"Good." Rui leaned over, kissing me on the forehead softly. Now there was something that I thought would never happen. "I just…it's weird…"

"What's weird?" I asked, feeling completely happy.

"Nothing…what do you do when you see something…that you don't like at all?" Rui asked me. I froze. Was he talking about Doumyouji and me? Maybe he really did love me.

"I'm not sure." I finally answered. "I would try to make it into something that I like."

"Thanks Tsukushi." Rui sounded only half awake. I snuggled deeper into his embrace. I hoped that he wouldn't let go. I fell asleep not with tears like the night before but full of a nice warm feeling.

______

DOOM! Ewwww…it's just so wrong! Rui and Tsukushi…gross…:p Oh well. So my cold is still quite nasty. Oh well. My room has posters up. None of my clothes are hung up which is what I really need to do. I am so torn! But I needed to see Captain Harlock staring at me and Valkyrie taking off her helmet and Vampire Hunter D letting his bloodlust take over and my creepy Jin-Roh poster and the cast of Love Hina and Ranma-chan! I have no life. MOGGET RULES! Okay that's enough Garth Nix for me. Sheesh…I hope this fanfic is doing all right…No one is reading it but me till I get the Internet back. I think it looks alright but you know, I thought that Legend of the Shards was written well when I finished it. 'Course I was about what, twelve? For a twelve-year-old I have to admit I was pretty original. Oh well ja!


	4. Why We Don't Watch Cooking Shows While E...

Here we go again. Argh. I'm sorry I had to take a break from this story and write some Second Chances because one) I'm pushing the stories limit with four stories. (Life After Death doesn't count right?) But since I'm confident that Boys Before the High Seas will be finished soon (WOOHOO!) that it won't matter. Two) I can't help it, Rui and Tsukushi just aren't fun to write. (Isn't that like a kind of spoiler?) And Three) I've been writing all day because I'm too exhausted to get up. So I'm glad that I'm still going strong over here. Ah, well. So here we go, more interesting stuff…

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango. 

Warnings: 'o.o'' Cussing…some other stuff too…sheesh…Teresa! Be forewarned, one of our biggest inside jokes is in this chapter…I had to use it, gomen! 

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Four 

_"Was happiness a fad?_

_Or was it in the lost and found again,_

_Behind the issues,_

_It might not be so bad,_

_We're all addicted to our tragedy,_

_I guess it's what it had to be,"_

_            -_Yet Another Song Quote That I'm Too Lazy To Look Up.

            I opened my eyes that morning to see that Rui was no longer in bed with me. That was okay though because I needed to get dressed. I changed into one of the outfits Doumyouji bought me, knowing that if I didn't wear one, Doumyouji would march me right back up to change. I still felt like a bit of a sleaze in the short skirt on the outfit but I tried to pretend that it wasn't that short. 

            As I went downstairs I wondered if anyone knew Rui and I had slept together. Akira and Soujirou would find out the truth about Doumyouji and me. I felt like they could be kept under wraps but I was hoping that Rui hadn't been found out. It was kind of strange; I didn't want to have to explain it to Doumyouji. Weird huh? 

            "I don't want the others to find out." I told myself. I had to justify sleeping with Rui? Why did I feel sort of guilty? I hadn't done anything wrong. I got into the kitchen to see the others eating Lucky Charms but Doumyouji wasn't up. 

            "Those are some nice outfits that Doumyouji picked out." Soujirou smiled at me once more in a slightly flirtatious manner. He patted the chair next to him. I flipped him off and sat in the chair next to Rui. 

            "Too bad he couldn't buy her some decency…" Akira remarked. 

            "You guys," Akira and Soujirou looked up at Rui. "Shut up." I smiled gratefully at Rui. 

            "I want some." I grabbed the box of Lucky Charms and poured myself a bowl. If everyone else could get into Doumyouji's cereal then so could I. In fact I felt I heard more of a right to the cereal. Doumyouji chose that moment to stumble on down the stairs. He looked really tired, as if he hadn't slept much at all. 

            "Hey, those are mine!" Doumyouji seemed to wake up at that moment. 

            "Everyone else was eating them!" I defended. Doumyouji grabbed the box off the table. 

            "Your all a bunch of freeloaders." Doumyouji declared. Akira and Soujirou snorted simultaneously in reply. "What?"

            "Um, at least I can't tap into my dad's bank account whenever I want to." Akira's come back seemed to hit home. Or rather the Lucky Charms box that sailed through the air at Akira's face did. 

            "Someone is a merry sunshine this morning." Soujirou commented. "Sexual frustration is a terrible thing." My eyes could have doubled as dinner plates at that comment. Doumyouji's face went bright red. 

            "Soujirou…" Doumyouji looked ready to hit someone again. I ate my artificial marshmallows and cereal as fast as I could. I wondered if Doumyouji could flip the table. It seemed all too possible at the moment, the way he was gripping the edges. 

            "By the way Doumyouji, you have excellent fashion sense when it comes to women." Akira told him. I pulled on the hem of my skirt, wondering if it would magically become longer some how. Doumyouji looked like he was about to reply when someone knocked on the door. Not wanting to be anywhere near the line of fire, I rushed to open it.

            Standing there was the same girl that I had seen Rui walking around in the park with. Up close I saw that she was even prettier than I had thought. I was probably standing there with my mouth open looking completely idiotic for a while.

            "Hello, is Rui here?" She asked. "I need to speak with him."

            "Um, yeah he is, come on in." I opened the door further and stepped aside as she walked past. Rui had been getting up from the table already.

            "S-Shizuka!" Rui exclaimed. The girl ran towards him with her arms opened wide. She threw herself against him. She was actually crying a little.

            "Oh Rui…it was terrible…you didn't come last night…Thomas came and forced me to kiss him…I didn't want to…" Shizuka (For I decided that was probably her name.) cried into his shoulder. Rui put his arms around her and all of a sudden I felt like someone had just stabbed me.

            "I know. I saw…I thought…" Rui broke off. I felt a little pinprick in the corner of my eye.

            _"What do you do if…you see something that…you don't like?" _

            I was such an idiot. He wasn't talking about Doumyouji and me! He was talking about Shizuka and whoever this Thomas guy was! He had only slept with me because he was upset about his girlfriend! I felt totally used. 

            "You did? That's why you didn't come…" Shizuka stood a little away from Rui. "That must have been so terrible…" I don't know how I could ever compare to this beautiful lady. She was so gracious and beautiful; I probably looked like a stick does next to a flower. An old crummy stick.

            "This is the girl you've been hiding for about two months?" Akira asked incredulously. "Way to go Rui!" My mouth tightened. That was it, I couldn't take anymore. I was leaving. I grabbed my book bag and started heading for the door.

            "Hey, hey!" Doumyouji called after me. "I'll give you a ride." Doumyouji was up, walking past me, with his keys.

            "As long as you don't drive like a maniac." I muttered. I was completely bitter right then. 

            "I won't drive like a maniac." Doumyouji told me. We got into the car and Doumyouji was driving at a nice normal speed. At least I knew that was one bad thing that wouldn't happen to me today. "Is something wrong?" The question made me want to start laughing. What wasn't wrong?

            "No." I lied. I didn't want Doumyouji to know anything. 

            "Yeah sure. You fall asleep in their arms and they turn out to have a beautiful girlfriend." Doumyouji's comment made my head snap towards him. 

            "What the hell are you talking about?" I asked him. 

            "You forgot one of your bags last night. I went into your room and found you sleeping in Rui's arms." Doumyouji was gripping the steering wheel. "You could have said you liked him!"

            "It was really none of your business! Besides what does it matter now? He's got his girlfriend back. He won't need me…" I turned away so Doumyouji couldn't see the tears that started to come down my face. "I'm just an idiot."

            "I don't think you're an idiot." Doumyouji said matter of factly. I turned towards him.

            "Yeah sure." Like I would believe that coming from Doumyouji. Doumyouji stopped the car, we weren't anywhere near our destination. 

            "Look, you can sit there and deny what I'm saying all you like, but you aren't an idiot." Doumyouji told me sternly. "Why don't you skip classes today? You can stay home and I'll bring you ice-cream."

            "Why are you being so nice?" I asked him. 

            "N-no reason." Doumyouji stammered, dropping his eyes from mine. "You just don't look like you want to really do anything." 

            "Well…" I hesitated. After all, college was very important. You couldn't just skip classes. And why _was_ Doumyouji being so nice? It was a little odd but the idea was tempting.

            "And I'll even," Doumyouji paused for effect. "Let you drive the car back to the house." I couldn't help it. It is a cool car! _I get to drive it? He's joking! There's no way in a million years…_

            "I can drive?" I squealed. Okay, so maybe I was a little too excited about it. Doumyouji took the keys out of the ignition and dangled them teasingly from his index finger. I reached out and grabbed them. "Well…I guess…" Even though I did feel a little better, I still didn't feel that great. I knew Rui hadn't used me intentionally. He had done it without thinking, like so many other things. 

            "I knew you had a weak spot for this car." Doumyouji told me. I rolled my eyes as I started it up. I pulled out and felt right at ease behind the wheel. 

            "That's what you think." I told him, before pressing on the gas a little more. No wonder Doumyouji sped, it was just too tempting. "This hunk of junk is okay…" I joked. 

            "Hunk of junk? I don't think it's ever been called that before." Doumyouji's face was completely defensive, I laughed even harder.

            "Well, maybe you aren't talking to the right kind of people." I quipped before turning around a corner. 

            "Whatever! You should have seen your face when I said you could drive the car back. 'I can drive?'" Doumyouji pulled yet another terrible impression of me with his squeakiest voice. 

            "I wasn't aware that I sounded like Asai when I talked." I parked perfectly in front of the house. Akira and Soujirou were leaving the house and walking towards the bus stop. Their mouths fell open.

            "You let her _drive_?" Soujirou asked. "You wouldn't let me drive when you sprained both your wrists!"

            "He probably wouldn't let anyone drive even if he were dead!" Akira put in. "Doesn't Tsukushi have a class?"

            "Don't you?" Doumyouji asked him. Akira and Soujirou looked at their watches.

            "If I'm late…" Akira trailed off, gulping. Soujirou and him took off towards the bus stop at a lightening speed. 

            "Has anyone ever driven your car?" I asked Doumyouji. 

            "Other than you…no." Doumyouji answered. I wondered why I got such a special privilege but decided it was probably because Doumyouji felt sorry for me. I walked into the house, tempted to run upstairs and changed. Rui had obviously already left. I sat on the couch and turned on the TV. Doumyouji sat next to me.

            "Don't you have any classes?" I inquired.

            "Yes but…well let's just say they don't really care if I come or not." Doumyouji replied. "Remember those cops who waved at me yesterday? It's kind of like that. They put me down as being there on the roll sheets."

            "Why?" It seemed unfair that the rest of us had to go to class but Moneybags McGee here could skip whenever he felt like it. "Just cause your rich?"

            "Pretty much. I usually do go to class." Doumyouji told me. "I do have to take over my dad's business when I get out of college."

            "Then you can get married to some girl who likes to wear short skirts and can clean really well." I teased him. "Do you realize that _all_ my outfits have short skirts?"

            "I realize." Doumyouji stretched out his arms. "It's not a crime to look good in public you know."

            "That's easy for you to say, you get to cover up your legs." I shot back. "I don't think this looks good, I think it looks kind of sleazy." 

            Doumyouji's eyes swept over my whole body and I felt a heat rise to my face. I tried to make it go away. His eyes met back up with mine. "Looks good to me." I tried to hide my face a little. _Why does he have to say things like that? It's almost like…well of course that's just ridiculous but still…_

            I tried to laugh, although it came out pretty weakly. The way he was looking at me, with his eyes so intense made me feel kind of weird. 

            "Yeah, well you just don't want to admit that you should have never taken me shopping." I teased. Doumyouji leaned towards me and suddenly I was acutely aware of how close he was sitting next to me on the couch. 

            "It would have been my loss if I hadn't." Doumyouji told me. Okay so I was slightly impaired on my judgment but I'd say that he was closer than he was a moment ago. I started to panic. They say that when you panic your 'flight or fight' response is triggered in your brain. I think mine leaned on one side a little too much. I hopped up. 

            "I'm dying of thirst!" I announced a little too loudly before practically running to the kitchen. I grabbed a glass and drank three whole glasses full of water before I stopped, gasping for breath. 

            _I'm just imagining things! That has to be it!_

            My mind was being very rational in my opinion. So I came back and sat down on the couch, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible about the whole thing. Doumyouji stood up.

            "I guess I'll go buy some ice-cream. What kind do you want?" He sounded a little defeated. I wondered why. 

            "Cookie dough!" I answered immediately. He smiled a little. "What?"

            "That's my favorite kind." Doumyouji explained. He walked out of the living room; I heard the jingle of keys and knew that he was off. I suddenly realized how tensed up I was. I decided to try to loosen up by playing some video games.

            They had an extensive collection of systems and games downstairs. Each system and game had someone's signature on it so that it could all be sorted out. I noted that one game had someone's name scribbled out and then Akira's name written above it. _Gee, that isn't suspicious._

            I finally settled on Grand Theft Auto Three, popping it into the PS2 and taking a controller. Twenty minutes later, (He obviously drove like a maniac) Doumyouji came in and I was getting chased by cop cars that kept smashing into the side of the convertible I had stolen. He set down the half gallon of ice cream and produced two spoons. 

            "Shouldn't we use bowls?" I asked. Doumyouji just shrugged. I dipped my spoon in and started to eat, having to give up playing, so I turned the TV back on. I turned it to a cooking show where coincidentally they were making doumyoujis. I giggled a little, feeling slightly hyper from the ice cream. "Kind of looks like you…" I was giggling hard enough to choke if I swallowed wrong. 

            "Does not!" Doumyouji protested. 

            "Could have fooled me." I went for another spoonful of ice cream. Doumyouji snatched the carton away from me. "Hey!" 

            "You can't have anymore until you admit that those do not look like me!" Doumyouji declared. I tried to fight for my ice cream but he was holding it well out of my reach. I tried to get up but and go over to it but Doumyouji accidentally tripped me. I fell right in his lap. 

            "Give me the ice cream!" I was in too silly of a mood at the moment to realize where I was but I reached out for the ice cream. I was laughing so hard though that I could barely move. The chef on the show had just put some shavings of something on top, making it look like they had curly hair. 

            "Say please." Doumyouji insisted. I rolled my eyes. 

            "P-P-Please!" I could barely get it out because the chef had just said something about the best way to serve a doumyouji. I found it hysterical.

            "I'm not sure you need anymore." Doumyouji handed me the carton, I began to dig in with my spoon. There wasn't much left but I didn't care. Doumyouji shifted slightly and it struck me that I was still on his lap. I scooted myself off with a sheepish grin.

            "Sorry." I murmured, trying to keep my face on the TV screen. 

            "It's okay." Doumyouji sighed slightly. "You weren't that heavy or anything."

            "Well that's always good to know, I guess that means it's okay that I ate all the rest of the ice cream!" I yelled triumphantly, hitting the box on the table in a sort of ceremonial way.

            "Hey!" Doumyouji yelled in protest. "That's it…" Before I knew it, I was in hysterical laughter once more as Doumyouji starting tickling me. 

            "Ahahahahahahahaha! Stop! I'll puke!" I tried to stop to fight him off. "Stop!" I yelled in desperation. He stopped; my sides were aching from too much laughter. My eyes were watering slightly. It occurred to me right then that if you had told me the day I moved in that I was going to end up getting tickled by Doumyouji over ice cream, I would have probably said your crazy. So Doumyouji wasn't as bad as I had original thought him to be. 

            I still felt that ache in my chest when my thoughts drifted onto Rui but I kept forcing the thoughts away. It wasn't as bad as it might have been, if perhaps I had gone to school. Doumyouji had really cheered me up. I was grateful to the obnoxious curly-haired boy. 

            "You know, your still meeting my sister today." Doumyouji reminded me. My face dropped a little. Well I guess I could handle that. Maybe his sister wasn't too bad…

            "Fine." I made a face. "But those things still look like you."

_________

            Doumyouji was critically studying me to see if there was anything else he deemed that he needed to fix. He made me paint my nails and do my hair up very nicely. I almost told him to drop dead but refrained from it. After all he had been pleasant almost all day. 

            "I think your good to go." Doumyouji nodded finally. 

            "Gee, are you sure?" I asked sarcastically. We drove to house F6. I argued that we could have just as easily walked there but Doumyouji didn't seem to believe in the power of walking. 

            We knocked on the door still bantering about how we could have walked. The door opened up. It was Asai. _Great, just who I wanted to see._

            "Oh Doumyouji! What are you doing here?" Asai batted her eyelashes at him. 

            "I'm visiting Tsubaki. She's home right?" Doumyouji inquired. 

            "Yes she is, I'll take you to her." Asai looked a little disappointed. Doumyouji kept a firm grip on me, just in case I were too fade away and he would be stuck without any protection against Asai. Doumyouji's arm was around my waist and I was trying not to hit him for his weird presumption. He could have just held onto my arm or something! We were lead to a big sitting room. There was a grand piano in one corner of the room. A girl with short sandy-colored hair was playing it beautifully.

            I gasped as my eyes fell on the only girl who could compete with Shizuka for prettiness. She had dark hair that fell down to her shoulders and dark eyes, much like Doumyouji's. 

            "Hello Tsubaki, I thought I'd bring over Tsukushi to come meet you." Doumyouji pushed me forward a little. I turned to shoot him a glare before turning back.

            "Your girlfriend?" Tsubaki cocked her head to one side, as elegantly as a princess.

            "Yes." Doumyouji nodded. Tsubaki surprised me by jumping up and grabbing my hand, shaking it wildly. 

            "So pleased to meet you! I'm Doumyouji Tsubaki. You can call me Tsubaki though." Tsubaki introduced herself. I thought my arm might come off in the process.

            "I thought Doumyouji was your first name." I turned to look at Doumyouji. 

            "Tsukasa! You dork." I looked to see that the piano player had turned around. "Imagine not telling your girlfriend your first name!"

            "Tsukasa?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

            "It's my first name. Everyone just calls me by my last." Doumyouji explained.

            "What was your name again?" Tsubaki asked as she sat down. Doumyouji and I sat in the seats across from her at a table. 

            "Makino Tsukushi." I said, feeling a little overawed by Tsubaki.

            "Tsukushi? That's a great name!" The piano player grinned the friendliest grin imaginable at me. 

            "Shigeru, just go back to playing the piano." Doumyouji told her. I looked at her in wonder. _This is the supposed 'most annoying person in the world?' She seems okay to me. _

            "I think I'll join in this little Doumyouji family visit." Shigeru seated herself next to Tsubaki. "I am Shigeru. I'm sure Tsukasa mentioned me." 

            "Actually yes he did." I agreed with her.

            "Did he tell you that I was the most annoying person in the world also?" Shigeru raised her eyebrows and I blinked.

            "How did you know?" I asked her.

            "He tells everyone that. I don't say what I think of some of _his_ friends." Tsubaki said pointedly. "Namely ones that grab me at certain parties…"

            "Akira didn't know who you were!" Doumyouji defended. I started to laugh. That sounded like something either Akira or Soujirou would do. 

            "That's okay, every morning I get catcalled when I come down for breakfast." I informed the two other girls. 

            "You tell Akira to not say anything or I'm coming over." Shigeru told me. "And I will too…"

            "Akira will probably wet himself." Tsubaki started to laugh. "It wouldn't surprise me!"

            "Hey did you hear about Shizuka? Apparently she's been spotted with a certain Hanazawa Rui…" Shigeru nudged Tsubaki. "When did we introduce those two? I thought they had forgotten about each other." My heart sank in my chest. These two had gotten them together? They were the ones responsible? I couldn't really hold it against them; they didn't know me or anything. They had just done it because it seemed like a good idea.

            "No wonder she's been so love-struck these days! I had to ask her five times if she had an extra floss." Tsubaki remarked. 

            "Yeah but that stupid Thomas guy is all in love with her. She keeps having to throw him out." Shigeru muttered. "Oh well. So Tsukushi, I don't remember seeing you before."

            "Oh?" I snapped out of my sad daze when I realized the subject had been changed. "I just transferred."

            "Really? I guess Tsukasa finally got over his fear of women." Shigeru commented. "Only known him a few days? He's getting to be quite the charmer than I presume."

            "Um actually, I wouldn't say I found him charming at first." I said hesitantly. "I mean he was yelling about me being in his parking space the first time we met."

            "Oh god! Do you remember when we accidentally parked in his space?" Shigeru asked, turning towards Tsubaki.

            "Who says it was an accident?" Tsubaki replied slyly. I had to admit, I liked the two girls a lot. Shigeru and Tsubaki were intelligent and cool. Not to mention they were funny. They also seemed to hold a no-nonsense attitude towards Doumyouji, who currently was glowering in his seat.

            "Well we can't stay very long." Doumyouji cleared his throat. Shigeru and Tsubaki turned towards me.

            "You can't?" Shigeru asked me. I turned to Doumyouji who was making a face at me. 

            "Er, I guess not." I smiled. "I hope I can come back and visit." 

            "Of course! We'd love to have you! Stop by anytime." Tsubaki smiled at me. Shigeru was still grinning.

            "Keep Tsukasa in line!" Shigeru called after me. "You know, he has sensitive ears…" I froze, my face going about as red as a tomato. Doumyouji's face looked as though we probably had the exact same expressions on our faces. We walked out the door, running straight into Sakurako.

            "Yikes!" She cried as she dropped a tray that had a teapot and several tea cups on it. The pot smashing and delivered tea all over the place.

            "Oh Sakurako! I'm so sorry!" I apologized. "I wasn't even paying attention." I helped her up. There was tea on her shirt where it had splashed. 

            "I-It's okay." Sakurako tried to brush herself off. "I'll have to clean this tea up."

            "Let me help." I offered. Doumyouji tugged on my arm. 

            "We should be going." He told me. I put my hands on my hips indignantly.

            "We just ran straight into Sakurako, I think we can help her clean up this mess." I told him, my face glaring defiance. He hesitated slightly. Yuuki came running down the hall.

            "Ah, I heard something break. Here I brought a towel Sakurako." Yuuki was already kneeling down. "Hey Tsukushi, next time don't go around running into people." Yuuki smiled at me to show she was just kidding around. 

            "If you guys need to go you can. We've got it under control." Sakurako was picking up pieces of the broken teapot. 

            "Yeah we do…" Doumyouji told them. "Sorry about that teapot."

            "Are you sure you don't want me to stay?" I asked them. "I could help."

            "No, no." Yuuki was patiently mopping up tea. "Go ahead." 

            "Well, I'm sorry about the whole thing, really I am. I'll see you guys." I waved to them before following an impatient Doumyouji out of the house. "We weren't even going anywhere, you were just too lazy to help!" I snapped at him, walking right past the car. I could walk the two houses over that it was. Doumyouji was such a baby sometimes.

            "I don't see you doing anything!" Doumyouji retorted, following me. 

            "Well, I offered to help." I told him blandly.

            "Please come back and get in the car? Everyone in that house is going to think we had a fight and then they'll be all over me again…" Doumyouji trailed off a little. I whirled around angrily.

            "Good, you should get the worshipping girlfriend that you obviously want! I'm going home!" I was about to turn when Doumyouji grabbed my shoulders. 

            "I don't want a girlfriend that worships me!" Doumyouji insisted. I had to admit, I was a little struck by this. After all the times Doumyouji had bragged to me about people who would love to be where I was and all that, he was saying that he wouldn't want someone like that? I was surprised to find that my heart as pounding loudly. _What the hell is up with my heart? _

            "D-Doumyouji…" I trailed off, not sure what to say. We were standing pretty close and his hands were holding my shoulders. 

            "Kiss her!" I heard Shigeru yell from a window. I looked up to see a grin that would have put the Chesire cat to shame. Her and Tsubaki were both watching with eager looks. I realized that they both expected to see us kiss. But I couldn't actually _kiss_ Doumyouji. 

            "Um, Tsukushi?" Doumyouji was barely moving his mouth. "Don't kill me." That was all I heard before he pushed his lips up against mine. I was temporarily stunned. I was going to kill him…I heard wild cheering from Shigeru and Tsubaki. I suddenly realized that this was my first kiss ever from a guy. I had wanted the guy to be Rui and now Doumyouji was just taking my first kiss? I was definitely going to kill him. 

            Doumyouji broke away. I was still standing there. Trying to gather my mind up. Shigeru and Tsubaki were laughing and I realized that it probably looked like I was swept away by the kiss. I pursed my lips and strode past Doumyouji, getting in the convertible. He sat in the driver side, turning on the engine before driving the thirty feet to our house. As we pulled up, I turned to him.

            "I'm going to kill you." I announced.

            "You know it would have looked awfully suspicious if I hadn't done it! It's not that big of a deal, right?" Doumyouji asked me. 

            "You wouldn't understand." I crossed my arms stubbornly. 

            "It was your first kiss wasn't it?" Doumyouji inquired, already knowing the answer from the look on my face. He started to laugh.

            "What's so funny?" I asked him crossly.

            "Well…" He trailed off.

            "Well what?" I questioned, losing the small ounce of patience left in me.

            "You really want to know?" He got out of the car and I followed him. 

            "Are you going to tell me or not?" I asked as we got up to the front door. He opened it up. 

            "It was my first kiss too." Doumyouji suddenly disappeared into the house before I could say anything. That sneaky little bastard! I would kill him! He kissed me and then made fun of me when he found out it was my first kiss! I should have shoved him away or made some joke to Shigeru and Tsubaki so we didn't kiss. We could have avoided it, he just wanted to embarrass me! I walked into the house, slamming the door. At that moment, I was ready to snap at anything.

_________

            Feh! Chapter finished! Sushi awaits folks! (Invest in your dad being an amazing chef and good at making sushi, for then it is cheaper and easier to get to.) I like this chapter. It's just funny. Just remember, now I have you in the palm of my hand! I shall lull you into quite the slumber before your rude awakening! OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! Sorry. So anyways, before I went berserk, I think I was talking about sushi. Well, it's good. 

Side Note: There really is such a thing as a doumyouji. I saw them make them on Iron Chef. One day I will eat nothing but doumyoujis and drink Henry Reinhard's Root Beer. I must have my expensive micro-brews! As I'm sure Teresa could tell you…

Favorite Line From This Chapter: "Kiss her!" (Words of wisdom often needed in the Hana Yori Dango universe in my opinion…) 


	5. That Was So Cheating Doumyouji!

Yeah, thanks for all the reviews! Seriously, I didn't realize how much I missed reviews but you guys are good about reviewing because you know I'm totally in to getting them! (Yes, I have no life.) 

Teresa: Everyone knows that picking Donkey Kong is pure suicide on Mario Kart!!! (You won't understand all you other folks.) Oh by the way! Cide in suicide comes from the Latin word Caeda which means "Slaughter" and looks much like Kaede. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango! I am however the owner of the Hana Yori Dango pillowcase. (TERSA RULES!!! SHE IS THE BEST ONEE-CHAN EVER!!!!) 

Warnings: KILL PAPER AIRPLANES!!! No that's not the warning, um cussing and the random boy with marble eyes…

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Five

_"More time apart will give you,_

_More months to argue,_

_Is this too much to live through? _

_It always seemed to far to."_

_            -_Did I stump Teresa yet again? I mean, another random song quote!

            I think that life settles into it's own comfortable routine no matter how messed up your life might be. I get up every morning; wear something nice that Doumyouji bought me because he seemed to think my other clothes were an absolute travesty or something. I'd go downstairs, Akira and Soujirou would make some comments, and I would threaten to beat the crap out of them. Then Doumyouji would drive in his car to my first class even if I could easily walk to my first class. Nice and normal everyday life.

            Today though, something seemed different. My routine went completely normal till I walked into my psychology class. Sakurako and Yuuki didn't have any empty seats by them so I was forced to sit in one of two empty seats. One seat was in a cluster of girls who were glaring at me. The other was next to a boy who looked as though he was a little apart from the others. 

            In fact he kind of reminded me of Rui. He had those slightly faraway eyes and pale face. I shook my head a little. So he looked like Rui? Big deal. I sat down next to him. He wasn't chattering like all the other classmates since the teacher was still not there. He was just sitting there slightly glum. I decided to be friendly.

            "Hi, I'm Tsukushi." I introduced myself. One could say I was feeling pretty outgoing right then. For some reason lately I had an extra air of confidence, although what caused it was a mystery to me. 

            "Tsukushi?" The boy turned towards me and his eyes seemed to focus into reality, much like Rui's would sometimes do. "I'm Junpei." There was a little bit of a silence as I tried to think of something clever to say.

            "So how do you like this class?" I had to pride myself for being the master of small talk at the moment. 

            "It's okay." Junpei shrugged. "I prefer my music classes though."

            "Music? What do you play?" I asked him trying to keep the conversation rolling.

            "The piano." Junpei answered. "It's not too bad. Why are you talking to me?" This sort of blunt question was just the sort of thing that Rui would have done. I almost laughed at the uncanny way they were like each other. 

            "You looked like you wanted a conversation." I explained. "Just being friendly you know?" 

            "Oh." Junpei shrugged slightly. "Most people wouldn't talk to me."

            "Well as I'm often told," I suddenly thought of Doumyouji. "I'm not like most people." 

            "Your nice." Junpei smiled at me. I could tell that he probably didn't smile that often. I grinned back. 

            "Okay students, I think you've had enough time to socialize, let's get down to work." The teacher announced. For the rest of the day I was lost in my classes and I didn't think much about anything. At the end of the day though I was rudely broken out of my routine day. 

            I was walking innocently along, knowing that Doumyouji would probably be waiting for me. I heard a cracking sound, like glass breaking. I ignored it however as people often break things and boys were always throwing things, laughing immaturely when they smashed. Big deal. That's when someone shoved me backwards. 

            I had been looking at the ground so I didn't even realize what had happened till I was falling backwards. Landing in a pile of broken glass shards. The sharp fragments tore into my bared legs and I cried out in pain. 

            I looked down at my leg where glass fragments and blood glared back at me. I looked around for the culprit but didn't see any. I winced as I tried to move my leg. It hurt way too much. No one seemed to even notice me though. 

            "Here." A hand went down to help me up. I saw that it was Junpei. "What happened?"

            "Someone shoved me…there was glass broken on the ground." I tried to explain as Junpei helped me up the best he could. He put my arm around him shoulders and his hand on my waist. 

            "We should get you to the Infirmary." Junpei told me. "That looks pretty bad."

            "No, it's no that bad, I have someone waiting for me." I winced a little as we started to walk. "I just need to get to the parking lot." 

            "I wonder why someone would shove you like that…" Junpei was frowning. "Your so nice to everyone."

            "Well not all the time…" I thought of Asai. She seemed the likely culprit in this particular episode. Of course I had no proof. "Sometimes I have to stick up for myself." We got to the parking lot were Doumyouji saw me and his eyes widened. He ran over to me and immediately started with a barrage of questions.

            "Who did this? What happened? Whose this guy?" Doumyouji started asking me right away. He took me from Junpei, actually picking me up, off of my feet. 

            "You don't have to carry me!" I insisted. "That's Junpei, he helped me walk out here. Someone pushed me into a bunch of broken glass." I explained, answering all his questions that I could.

            "If I find out who did it…" Doumyouji was shaking with anger. Him. Who would have thought? Though it could have been just common courtesy on his part. I mean Doumyouji wasn't totally heartless.

            "Thanks Junpei." I smiled at him. He waved at me as Doumyouji carried me to the car, putting me down gently on the seat. 

            "We need to get to the Infirmary." Doumyouji turned the key and engine roared to life. I buckled my seatbelt, as I knew that Doumyouji was going to drive like there was no tomorrow. Well with the speed he was going, there probably wouldn't be. 

            "But they charge it to the parents…" I began to protest.

            "Then I'll cover it!" Doumyouji told me as we pulled around the building to the Infirmary where people were walking in and out. Doumyouji pulled me out of my seat even when I tried to say that I could walk. Apparently he was just not going to hear reason or something. 

            We walked inside and as soon as the nurse saw Doumyouji she jumped into action. I was soon letting the doctor examine my legs. 

            "I'm going to pull this glass out, it's going to hurt a lot." The doctor murmured. He put on a pair of gloves and started to pull out the glass fragments. I twisted away in pain. Doumyouji started to squeeze my hand. 

            "Ouch!" I cried out as another piece of glass came out. Doumyouji squeezed my hand even harder and I tried to focus on the pain of that. After what seemed like hours, the doctor finally pulled the last piece from my leg. He began to bandage my leg up. 

            "You have to be careful next time." The doctor told me as he finished bandaging me up. "Though why they allow broken glass to just lay on sidewalks is beyond me! What a health hazard."

            "You're telling me." I cracked even though my leg still hurt. 

            "I must say though, you two make a wonderful couple." The doctor smiled at us. "You can really see you two are close." I was a little taken aback. _You…can? Maybe this doctor is losing it. _Then I realized that Doumyouji hadn't let go of my hand. 

            "Thank you so much." I slid off the table. My leg hurt a little but I was okay. It would take a lot more than some broken glass to take me down. Doumyouji and I walked back out to the car. "I can't believe that doctor! I don't think we make that convincing of a couple." 

            Doumyouji chose to remain silent for a little bit which made me look at him funny of course. I mean isn't this the part where he says something like "Yeah that doctor sure was stupid." But he wasn't saying anything at all. He was just driving. 

            "Um…Doumyouji?" I raised a questioning eyebrow at him.

            "What?" He asked me. 

            "Thanks for taking me to the Infirmary." I smiled at him. "Although it was really painful!" 

            "Your welcome." Doumyouji flashed me a large smile. "You squeezed my hand to death though!"

            "What? You were the one squeezing my hand!" I argued then I thought back how at times I would grip his hand so that maybe he could take away some of the pain. That was the subconscious thought anyway. "Well…you were the one who started it." I felt somewhat like that was a victorious statement. It would have been if I were six. 

            "You looked like you were in a lot of pain." Doumyouji informed me. "I was trying to help."

            "That's you, Mr. Helpful." I joked. "Thanks though. It was nice of you." Doumyouji's eyes turned from the road to me. I wondered what he was staring at but he quickly looked back at the road as not to hit anything. 

            "Do you need any help getting out?" Doumyouji asked me as we pulled up in front of the house. 

            "I didn't lose a leg!" I protested as I opened up my door before Doumyouji could. I could tell from the way that his face fell slightly he probably was going to try to open my door. We walked inside the house we're we found Akira, Soujirou, and Rui watching The Empire Strikes Back. Akira and Soujirou were acting out all the light saber fights with the mop and broom. Rui was watching them and not really the movie.

            "So this is what you guys do when I'm not around." Doumyouji shook his head. "That's kind of sad." 

            "Hey! This movie rules." Akira told him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

            "It was on TV!" Soujirou took advantage of Akira being distracted to stab him in the side with the broom.

            "Ahhh!" Akira cried out before suddenly blinking at me. "Hey, what happened to your leg?" 

            "I um, fell." I lied because one, I was sick of telling the story over and over again. Two, I kind of didn't want anyone to know. I know it was weird what we'll do. 

            "Did you trip and fall on Doumyouji? Maybe he'll let us eat his Lucky Charms." Soujirou's mouth was twitching suggesting that he thought he was incredibly funny. I knew what he was hinting at. 

            "I'm hungry." Rui finally tore himself away from the TV. "And bored."

            "Yeah if only you could be amused by fake light saber fights carried out with cleaning items." I'm sorry I had to say it. I mean I like Star Wars as well as the next person but I wasn't really into it like Akira and Soujirou were. 

            "You know how many times they've watched that movie?" Doumyouji asked me. "About three million times since we first entered college!"

            "That's not true!" Soujirou insisted. 

            "I'm hungry." Rui repeated himself. 

            "Let's eat something so Rui will stop whining." Doumyouji sighed. Rui sat up in a sort of enthusiastic gesture when he got his way. 

            "There's not a whole lot of stuff here." Soujirou told him. "Just so you know." Doumyouji rolled his eyes.

            "I suppose that means I have to go out and feed you all." Doumyouji shook his head. "We'll let's go out to eat then."

            "Can we ride in your car?" Akira asked much like a little kid. I laughed. I had been riding all over in that car and even got to drive it though not for very long so it wasn't that big of a deal. Doumyouji gave him a look as if debating it inside his head.

            "Oh Doumyouji, I'm sure they won't scratch it or anything." I had to feel a slight endearment to these boys who had become apart of my every day life.

            "See, Tsukushi thinks we should get to ride in the car!" Soujirou was obviously using that as his only argument. 

            "I don't know…" Doumyouji was trying to hide a smile which meant he was just torturing the boys on principle.

            "Stop antagonizing them. Come on let's get in the car." I told everyone before turning right around limping slightly. We all loaded up into Doumyouji's car, I got to sit in the front seat even though Akira and Soujirou went on an all out shotgun war. Doumyouji told them to get in the back or they could just not ride in the car. 

            We were going at a fast speed but not the maniac ones at which Doumyouji like to revert too. Soujirou and Akira were talking loudly in the backseat while Rui was kind of quiet like always. 

            "Taco Bell! Taco Bell!" Soujirou and Akira chanted together as we drove right by a glowing Taco Bell sign. "Hey!" The cried out indignantly.

            "Get a life." Doumyouji told them. "I hate Taco Bell." 

            "I want to go to Dairy Queen." Rui spoke up. Doumyouji suddenly turned so sharply I just knew we were going to end up flipped over but luckily we didn't. We pulled right into the parking lot of a Dairy Queen.

            "Since when did Rui get to pick the restaurant?" Akira grumbled as we got out of the car. 

            "_I_ wanted to go here anyways." Doumyouji put emphasis on the fact that it was him. Trust Doumyouji to give a little disclaimer like that. I shook my head. We walked in and ordered before Akira and Soujirou sat down opposite of Doumyouji and me. They had to scoot over so Rui could sit down. 

            "Number 876." The person announced. 

            "I want to get it!" Soujirou volunteered taking our ticket. He had to walk on the table though because he was on the inside of the booth. We all shook our heads. He came back with our food. We sat there separating it until Doumyouji made an annoyed sound.

            "I forgot to order a blizzard!" Doumyouji hit his fist on the table in irritation. 

            "Why don't you just share Tsukushi's?" Soujirou asked him as if that was the obvious solution. Doumyouji's face went red.

            "There's only one spoon!" I protested feeling the familiar rush of heat to my face.

            "So?" Akira gave me a weird look. "Don't tell me you guys haven't done anything yet!" I would have given anything to pour Akira's soda over his head and call him stupid for suggesting that we should do anything. But Doumyouji answered before me.

            "Akira, I don't think what I do with my girlfriend is any business of yours." Doumyouji took the spoon from my hand. He ate a big bite out of _my_ blizzard. I ground the heel of my foot into his foot. I snatched my spoon back.

            "That's my blizzard." I told him very primly eating some of it. 

            "That's the closest that _their _going to get to frenching." Soujirou whispered to Akira, which of course we all heard. My face went bright red and choked on my spoon. 

            "Shut up you guys!" I brandished my spoon threateningly. 

            "Beware the mighty spoon of Tsukushi." Rui joked before eating a French fry.

            "That's right." I gave them wary looks. I dug into my food and shot a dirty look at Doumyouji when he took my spoon from me again, eating more of my blizzard. I decided not to push the subject because there would probably be some suspicions. So I kept quiet though through the looks I kept giving Doumyouji it was clear that I thought he must have some nerve. Which was exactly what I thought. 

            We finished up and went back home. We went into the living room to hang out. Doumyouji sat next to me on the couch, which was what he was supposed to do. 

            "You two are really weird." Soujirou pronounced. "I mean, you wouldn't even think you two are dating…" 

            "What are we watching?" Doumyouji changed the subject but not without pulling yet another stunt that night. He put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me towards him. 

            "I can't decide." Akira looked over the large collection of tapes. "Hey look, it's the tape of that New Year party we went to! I didn't know we still had that…Oh well, um…" Akira couldn't seem to make up his mind. "Screw this I'm going to kick Soujirou's ass at Mario Kart." I rolled my eyes as those two got out controllers. Rui didn't want to play so both Doumyouji and me got one too.

            "Funny, I don't remember saying I wanted to play." I muttered as I slipped a little away from Doumyouji. We quickly picked our racers. (I beat everyone out and got Toad, who was my favorite.) 

            At first the racing was going quite well and everyone was having a great time. Then I felt the competition start to really take off. I was winning in a race and the only person that could possible beat me was Doumyouji. I dodged out of the way of a green turtle shell. I was going to show him that I was not easy to beat at this game. 

            "She's gonna win! I don't want to be beat by a girl!" Soujirou groaned as I saw the finish line. Doumyouji then did the biggest cheat I have ever witnessed. 

            He put a hand on my leg.

            I swear that I must have jumped at least ten feet in the air at that moment. I saw my car on screen wildly fly off. Doumyouji's own car past the finish line with Akira and Soujirou cheering. I was not so excited about it. I slammed my controller on the table before stomping away. I'm sorry, that was just uncool. I realize we had to act like a couple but that did not include him grabbing my leg so that I wouldn't win at Mario Kart.

            I slammed my bedroom door so hard that at first I was scared that it might come right off the hinges. Then I sat on my bed so that I could be furious without my leg hurting too much. I pulled out my Psychology book and started pretending to read it. I say pretending because I tried to read it but I realized pretty fast that I wasn't really reading it because I was pissed. 

            Then I decided to pull an act of utmost defiance. I put my hair up in braided pigtails, which I knew made me look even plainer. Then I changed into my clothes. I felt much better with pants on; I can't begin to tell you. I decided to just sit there looking out my window. There was a knock at the door.

            "Who is it?" I asked grumpily. 

            "It's me." I could hear Doumyouji's slightly apologetic tone even though he wasn't apologizing.

            "Go away." Was my instant reply. 

            "Come on, let me in…" Doumyouji pleaded. "I'm really sorry."

            "You should be." I told him. "Now go away." My door opened and I could feel the vein throbbing in my head as Doumyouji stepped inside. I was half tempted to throw a shoe at his head, which wouldn't have been a crime in my opinion. "Did you not hear me? I said go away not come inside."

            "Why are you so mad at me? It isn't that big of a deal." Doumyouji asked me in a demanding tone.

            "Your so stupid! It is a big deal!" I stood on my feet, trying to face him down. It must have been funny looking because Doumyouji towered over me. "You _grabbed_ me in front of everyone like that!" 

            "I don't know what I was thinking!" Doumyouji shook his head. "I thought it would be…funny that's all! I'm sorry okay?" 

            "Are you really?" I asked him still wary of him. 

            "I really am." Doumyouji put up a hand as if swearing. I bit my lip. Should I forgive him or hit him upside the head. I was kind of proud of him for apologizing other than trying to just pass it off. Much like the kissing episode. 

            "Okay, fine. I know how hard it would be for you if you didn't have me to ward off all those other girls." I rolled my eyes and shrugged trying to make it seem unimportant. 

            "You think that's why I apologized?" Doumyouji's serious tone made me blink a few times in confusion. _Why does he keep saying things like that? They make me feel weird…_

            "That would be my first guess." I replied. 

            "Well it's not." Doumyouji told me. "Are you going to bed?" 

            "I thought I'd read." I pointed to my discarded psychology book. "Why?"

            "Akira and Soujirou said we have to have a re-match but Soujirou has to sit between us." Doumyouji grinned at me. "So how about it?"

            "Your on." I grinned back, feeling my competitive spirit rise. 

            "Do you have to wear your hair like that?" Doumyouji asked me.

            "Well I'll just stop at the salon on my way down the stairs." I said sarcastically. "Stop whining." We went downstairs and I had my rematch. (I won of course.) It was actually a lot of fun. But still I had to dwell on certain things that I didn't really understand. Like things that Doumyouji kept saying. Maybe I was just overanalyzing things but it seemed like there was always some double meaning to some of those things he said. 

___________

            I started to write the first part of the next chapter when I realized that I shouldn't be writing it on this chapter. That proves that I need to keep myself together. I finally got in touch with my oldest friend! But apparently he's taller than me! DAMN YOU! Heehee. I might have more up soon. I don't know.  

Favorite Line From This Chapter: "So this is what you guys do when I'm not around? That's kind of sad." (Thank you Doumyouji. ^_^)


	6. Not To Mention Makiko!

You guys are such good reviewers! You review all the chapters and everything. I feel so nice giving you another chapter. Should I give out another chapter of Boys Before the High Seas? As well? Am I feeling that generous. Maybe. I have black hair! Operation: Jade Is A Weirdo Who Dyes Her Hair Black has been very successful!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango. 

Warnings: There's cussing. There's some violence. There's…chicken noodle soup???

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Six

_"Let the say weak say I am strong,_

_Let yourself say I was wrong,_

_Let your heart move on, _

_Let your heart move on,"_

_            -Another Song Quote._

            "I'm not sick." Doumyouji insisted to me a week later. "I feel fine." 

            "I can tell." I said, his voice sounded weird because his nose was completely stuffed and he was sneezing all over the place. I put my hand on his forehead, much like I had to do my little brother not too long ago. "You have a fever."

            "I do not." Doumyouji muttered. 

            "Yes, I'm making this all up." I rolled my eyes. I pulled out a thermometer. "Let's see if you believe this thing." I stuck it into his mouth before turning and walking out of the room. Akira, Soujirou, and Rui all had their coats on and were giving me questioning looks.

            "Well?" Soujirou prompted. "Can he come?" I felt like a mother all of a sudden. 

            "No he can't go with you guys." I felt bad because we had all planned to go to some video arcade that had just opened up downtown. Soujirou and Akira had begged us to go, so we agreed. Now Doumyouji was sick that I didn't think he should even leave his bed. 

            "Are you going to come?" Rui asked me.

            "No, I better stay here and make sure he doesn't make himself worse." I sighed tiredly. "You guys can go on ahead though."

            "It's too bad. It won't be the same without you guys…" Soujirou shook his head. "Oh well. We better get going." 

            "You guys go have fun." I told them. We all waved good-bye to each other before the boys took off. I turned on my heel and marched right back into Doumyouji's room. I took the thermometer out of his mouth and examined it. One-oh-one. 

            "Am I okay?" Doumyouji asked, trying to cover up his cough. 

            "No! You're over one hundred. You're staying in bed today." I put my hands on my hips to show that I was not going to tolerate anything less. "The others already left anyways."

            "You stayed here?" Doumyouji sounded surprised.

            "Well someone's gotta take care of you!" I exclaimed. "Sheesh… I'm going to make oatmeal, I know we have some. Now just be good and stay in bed." I walked out of the room, taking the thermometer with me. Doumyouji sure was dumb sometimes. I made oatmeal though I had to search for it because Soujirou had made some and put it in the wrong cupboard of course. 

            I brought the steaming bowl of oatmeal up on a tray with a glass of orange juice. (I had no idea we had any but things often just popped up in our fridge, courtesy of Akira and Soujirou I supposed.) Doumyouji was watching his TV glumly. 

            "Breakfast in bed, alright." Doumyouji grinned at me. "This would be nice _every_ morning."

            "Don't hold your breath on it." I retorted. "Your lucky I even made you breakfast. I could have just as easily made you do it."

            "I would have just eaten Lucky Charms." Doumyouji shrugged. "Thanks though." 

            "What are you watching?" I asked him. He patted the empty bed spot next to him. I rolled my eyes at him and sat down next to him. Doumyouji took a huge bite of oatmeal and spat it immediately back out.

            "It's hot!" Doumyouji exclaimed, drinking down some orange juice.

            "No duh. You have to _blow_ on it." I told him as if he were ten years old. He looked a little embarrassed but blew on his hot oatmeal. He began to eat again. 

            "Aren't you worried you'll catch what I have?" Doumyouji asked me. 

            "Then I'll get to skip school and take a vacation from girls glaring at me wherever I go." I joked. The doorbell rang suddenly. I hopped up and ran down the stairs, wondering who could be there. 

            It was Junpei, standing there with a small bouquet of daisies. I wasn't a daisy kind of girl but I didn't really think they were for me. It seemed a little nervous.

            "Hey Junpei, what are you doing here?" I asked him, Junpei and me always sat next to each other in class, really enjoying each other's company. Sometimes I wondered if I liked him because he was him or because he reminded me of Rui. I think a mixture of both in an odd way.

            "I wanted to see if you were busy." Junpei said shyly, handing me the bouquet. "I got these for you, for being such a nice friend to me." 

            "Well…" I felt a little bad, I would like to go with him but I had to take care of Doumyouji. "See my friend is sick and I'm kind of taking care of him."

            "Oh, that's okay." Junpei smiled sadly. "Maybe some other time then?"

            "Of course! I'm really sorry though…" I trailed off. Junpei looked a little happier. 

            "Don't worry about it." Junpei told me. "I'll see you around, Tsukushi."

            "Bye!" I called after him as he left. Then I closed the door and leaned against it. I really did wish I could go do something with Junpei but I still felt like I _had_ to stay with Doumyouji. Was that strange or what? I went back up to Doumyouji's room forgetting that I was still carrying the daisies. 

            "Who are those from?" Doumyouji asked me sharply. 

            "Junpei." I told him. 

            "Huh." Doumyouji grunted eyeing me with suspicion. 

            "They really are from Junpei!" I insisted, for I knew it was true. _You'd think that Doumyouji was jealous or something…_

            "Well I don't doubt there from him. I just don't trust a guy who gives flowers to a girl who everyone knows has a boyfriend." Doumyouji explained to me. 

            "What are you, jealous?" I asked him incredulously. "I don't think it's a crime to give flowers to friends."

            "He didn't give them to you because he wanted to be friends." Doumyouji told me, as if I was younger and dumber than him.

            "What are you talking about?" I raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. 

            Doumyouji gave me a superior look. "When a guy gives you flowers, it means he really likes you." 

            "Rui once gave me flowers!" I countered.

            "How old was Rui?" Doumyouji asked.

            "Ten." I answered. I wonder why I was defending this whole thing to Doumyouji. Like it was any of _his_ business whether people gave me flowers or not.

            "Well, he was just a kid then, he probably didn't really understand it. Once they discover girls, and I'm sure your friend has unless there's something you don't know about him, that's what the real meaning is." Doumyouji folded his arms in a sort of satisfaction.

            "Thank you Dr. Love." I turned to go put the flowers in a vase. They were pretty but like I said I'm not really a daisy kind of girl so I didn't really care. But they had been a gift from Junpei and I had to smile at his gesture. I put the flowers in my window ceil. I went back to Doumyouji's room though to see what he was doing and to take the tray back downstairs.

            "I think you like looking after me." Doumyouji teased me.

            "Show's what you know." I cracked. "I just wanted to come take your tray down. You gonna watch TV all day?" 

            "I'm bored with TV." Doumyouji whined. "Let's do something." I took his tray down and then tried to think of something to do. Doumyouji was such a little kid sometimes! I grabbed a deck of cards from my room and brought them back to Doumyouji's room. 

            "Do you want to play cards?" I asked him waving the deck in the air. He nodded eagerly, shutting off the TV. We began playing a few rounds of War and started to go through just about every card game that we knew for hours on end. In fact I had no idea that any time had passed other than when I got up and made Doumyouji some soup to help with his cold. We were interrupted late in the afternoon though.

            "This is what you two have been doing all day?" Akira asked as he walked in followed by Rui and Soujirou. I was temporarily distracted and just flipped a jack in Slap Jack. 

            "Ha!" Doumyouji yelled triumphantly as he slapped the pile. "I got you that time!"  Then he realized the others were there and looked a little embarrassed.

            "Doumyouji, I'm so disillusioned." Soujirou shook his head. "You're supposed to be like our leader and you sit around playing Slap Jack with your girlfriend when the house is empty." 

            "How do you know that's all we did?" Doumyouji asked them with a raised eyebrow. 

            "No one plays cards after sex." Akira informed them. I picked up a shoe that I had taken off earlier that day and threw it at Akira's head. 

            "If all you guys are going to do is talk about me and Doumyouji's love life than you can just leave!" I told them. _Why am I blushing? We didn't do anything and we wouldn't do anything either…_

            "I think the real problem is that Tsukushi gets all red in the face if we talk about sex. Meanwhile, Doumyouji is going blue in the face from holding back." Soujirou seemed to have forgotten that we were there. And that I had another shoe. 

            "I'm serious you guys! It's none of your business." I stomped past them with my cards. 

            "Thanks a lot." I could hear Doumyouji's voice say. If only we could just tell the others the truth! Then we wouldn't have to play this huge game of pretend. Of course it was entirely up to Doumyouji. Not me. I put my cards away and collapsed on my bed. My daisies seemed to be a reminder of Junpei staring straight at me. I groaned a little. Boys were just complicating my life way out of proportion. I remember coming here at the beginning of the semester thinking only of how I had to see Rui. Now Rui and I were not nearly as close as we had been. 

            Of course when it came down to it, everything was far more complicated than I thought it could become. I was posing as someone's girlfriend, I was good friends with a boy who reminded me so much of the only boy I thought I'd fall in love with, and I was just lost in the whole mess. It sounded like something that happens to someone else. 

            I decided to go downstairs and see what the others were doing. It seemed like it was quite the Tony Hawk Pro-Skater competition going on. You'd think after a whole day of playing videogames they'd be sick of them but oh no, not Akira and Soujirou. Rui was half asleep on the couch behind them. 

            "Tsukushi, watch this!" Soujirou called out as he did some great trick that earned him a huge amount of points.

            "A-mazing." I told him in a patient voice. 

            "This game is boring." Rui announced in a sleepy tone. "I'm going to sleep."

            "Thanks for the insight man." Akira muttered as he tried to pull a trick similar to Soujirou's and failed miserably. I think that this was not Akira's game but he didn't seem to want to admit it, blaming everything from the fact that the controller wasn't working right to the angle the screen was at. (A.N. Sound familiar Teresa?)

            "I want to play." Doumyouji, who seemed to decide that he could get out of bed. I gave him a look but he ignored me. 

            "No way, you suck worse than Akira at this game." Soujirou scoffed. "Which is pretty sad." 

            "Doumyouji, you should really be in bed unless you want to get us all sick." I told the curly haired boy. 

            "You weren't in there anymore. It was boring." Doumyouji complained sitting down on the couch. 

            "Yeah Doumyouji, you could make yourself worse." Akira said in a high-pitched voice, which seemed to be a sort of impression of me although it was worse than when Doumyouji imitated me. 

            "Shut up Akira!" Doumyouji threw a cushion at the longhaired boy. 

            "Why do people keep throwing things at me?" Akira asked. "Come on, give me a break." 

            "Gee, I wonder." I giggled. "I am serious though Doumyouji, you don't want to make things worse. Goodness knows I might have to _walk_ on Monday." Doumyouji frowned slightly.

            "You aren't walking." Doumyouji got up. "I'm going to get better before Monday." I was totally confused. Was it really that big of deal? Of course I wasn't Doumyouji and had about as a good idea of how that guy worked as just about anyone.

            "That's a short-ass leash." Soujirou joked. I threw a cushion at him. 

            "You know what? It's only Doumyouji and Tsukushi that throw stuff at us!" Akira realized. Another cushion flew, hitting him square in the face.

            "Shut up Akira." Rui rolled over in his sleep and I smiled. 

__________

            I was walking into my classroom when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and my jaw dropped. There was no way…

            "Hey Tsukushi!" Makiko greeted me happily. I squealed, hugging my second oldest friend in the whole world. 

            "Makiko! What are you doing here?" I asked her, excitement running through my veins. I thought I wouldn't see her for so long after I transferred colleges. 

            "I transferred! There was no way I was going to a different college than you, not in a million years!" Makiko explained. "I'm glad we have a class together!" 

            "Wow! We have to hang out this afternoon! When did you get here? What house are you in?" I couldn't help all the questions; I was so excited that she was there. Makiko would understand everything and possibly have some sort of solution to my interesting situations. 

            "Woah, slow down!" Makiko laughed as we took our seats. "First of all, let's hang out this afternoon! Alright, now second, I got here Sunday and third, house F6."

            "I'm in F4!" I told her. "Oh! There's so much I have to tell you about!" 

            "We'll have to wait till after class. I bet there is! You have to tell me all about how things are going with Rui." Makiko whispered as the teacher started to take roll. That's right there was an awful lot that Makiko didn't know. She knew that I was in love with Rui, when I told her she said it wasn't all that surprising. All day I waited till I was free to talk to Makiko. We had separate classes so I had her meet me in the parking lot that I knew Doumyouji, who had recovered from his sickness, would be waiting for me in. 

            Finally when I was free I ran towards the parking lot. Doumyouji had just pulled up, fresh from a day of his own classes. 

            "Excited to see me?" He asked with a smile. 

            "Nope!" I loved the way his face dropped sometimes, it was just comical. Makiko emerged from another direction. "Makiko!" I waved to her. 

            "Hey Tsukushi!" Makiko's smile widened as she ran over. She spotted Doumyouji in his car immediately. "Who's this? Great car by the way." Makiko's face held a tint of pink. Makiko always was a bit boy-crazy.

            "Um this is Doumyouji." I told her. "He's my boyfriend." Makiko looked like her eyes were going to pop right out of her head and roll a few feet.

            "N-no way!" Makiko gasped. "Your so lucky Tsukushi!" 

            "Hurry up." Doumyouji looked a little annoyed.

            "Can we give Makiko a ride? We were going to hang out this afternoon." I explained him. Doumyouji's eyebrow twitched.

            "I guess." He finally answered. Makiko squealed in excitement.

            "Tsukushi," She grabbed my arm and whispered. "This is _the_ coolest car I've ever been in." Makiko informed me as she got into the backseat. 

            "Just wait till you see how he drives it." I joked. I buckled my seatbelt and Doumyouji took off at a speed that would suggest he was in a race with a beam of light. Makiko seemed to like it though. We finally pulled up in front of the house. We ran inside ahead of Doumyouji. 

            "Oh wait," I stopped her as we passed the living room. Akira and Soujirou were at again at some video game. "This is Soujirou and Akira." The two boys looked up at Makiko studying her. 

            "Eh, not too bad." Soujirou whispered to Akira, loud enough for the rest of us to hear. Makiko was in too much of a daze.

            "I'm Makiko." Makiko finally got out. Soujirou grinned flirtatiously and I made a note myself to watch him around my friend. 

            "Nice to meet you Makiko." Soujirou's voice held an air of double meaning. I shot him a look that said that if he tried to pull anything then I would kill him. 

            "Come on Makiko." I tugged at her sleeve. Makiko followed me waving at them as she walked up the stairs.

            "Those guys are soooo cute!" Makiko was acting like her normal self. I smiled. It was nice to be back in the days of all my friends. "Tsukushi, how do you do it?"

            "Do what?" I asked as I opened the door to my room. 

            "Have so much luck! You have a cute boyfriend who I might add, has an awesome car, you live in a house full of cute guys, and oh I don't…It just seems like you are always so lucky!" Makiko flopped down on my bed. "But I'm confused, what happened with Rui?"

            "Rui…Rui has a girlfriend now. Her name is Shizuka." I felt that familiar pang to my chest. 

            "Oh Tsukushi, I'm sorry." Makiko gave me as comforting smile as she patted my hand. 

            "It's okay." I told her. 

            "Now tell me how you met Doumyouji! He lives here too doesn't he?" Makiko asked. 

            "Yeah he does. We um…" I had been meaning to tell Makiko all about how I wasn't really Doumyouji's girlfriend but then I realized that I couldn't. Doumyouji hadn't told anyone at all and how could I go back on him and tell? It just felt wrong. "We got together while scrubbing bathrooms."

            "Wow, that's weird." Makiko was always very truthful with her opinions. "I can't imagine a guy like him scrubbing a bathroom!" _Yeah, neither could I…_

            "That's basically all that's happened though." I concluded. 

            "Still, that's a whole lot! Imagine…it would make a good story." Makiko did like to write so this comment didn't surprise me. Although the thought of a story based on what was actually happening to me sounded rather unappealing at the moment. 

            "Now tell me what's been going on with you." I demanded while smiling. Makiko took a deep breath.

            "Okay so you remember how…" Makiko began. I was glad to have her around again; she was so understanding and fun to be around. I felt a little bad about lying to her but figured it was probably all for the best.

_________

Woah, I really need to go to bed! Ah I do not want to go to school tomorrow but I shall for I must graduate from high school someday. (I wrote 2006 on my hand so I wouldn't forget when I graduate! ^_^!) Oh well, no one wants to hear the lament of a freshman so I hope I can bring forth yet another chapter to please all my gracious fans. But now I must go to bed!

Favorite Line In This Chapter: "No one plays cards after sex." (Any truth to this statement?) 


	7. Dude, Doumyouji's A Lie Detector!

So I decided to bring you another chapter out of the goodness of my kind little Jade heart. Plus I have cappuccino goodness! (Teresa, I've finally developed my taste for coffee! AND I IS LOVING IT SO MUCH! I think that was the caffeine talking.) Oh and I as much as I love the fans and want to bring them what they want, this is a dictatorship and what I say goes. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango

Warning: Cussing and stuff…

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Seven

_"I was on my way to be with you today,_

_And you know it's true because I would never lie to you,_

_First my car broke down so I had to hitch a ride,_

_I was almost there when the motor died."_

_            -Another Random Song Quote_

            I was calmly walking out of one of my classes, ready to go home and maybe pass out on my bed. I was beyond tired. I think that all the homework plus just life in general was running me ragged. 

            "Hi Tsukushi." Junpei walked up to me, waving a little. I smiled at him. 

            "Hi Junpei." I greeted him. 

            "Do you want to get coffee with me?" Junpei asked me with a slightly pleading look. "If your not busy." I felt a little guilty because lately it seemed like I was always busy. Maybe coffee with Junpei would refresh me. 

            "Okay, but I have to tell Doumyouji or he'll be waiting a long time." I told him. Junpei nodded happily. I went out into the parking lot where Asai was sitting there trying to talk to an annoyed looking Doumyouji.

            "Hey Doumyouji! I'm going to go have coffee with Junpei!" I exclaimed as I ran up to them. "I'll just take a bus back. Don't worry." Doumyouji didn't look like he liked the idea one bit. 

            "You can't." Doumyouji said simply. 

            "Why not?" I asked confused.

            "See Doumyouji, Tsukushi is busy, let's go do something." Asai's voice rose in a whine and I felt myself wincing slightly. 

            "You aren't having coffee with Junpei." Doumyouji stated in a tone that said he couldn't be bargained with. I put my hands on my hips.

            "Who says?" I asked him defiantly. 

            "Let her have coffee with that stupid guy." Asai jumped in. 

            "Asai, shut up!" Doumyouji snapped at her. "Tsukushi, get in the car." 

            "Make me." I replied grumpily. This seemed at first a great thing to say when it popped in my mind. Little did I realize that Doumyouji wasn't in the mood for bantering. Before I could say anything, Doumyouji picked me up. Then he promptly deposited me in the car. 

            I was pissed.

            Of course he was just buckling himself up like throwing me in a car was perfectly acceptable. Junpei was staring with wide eyes. I went to open the door, jump out, call Doumyouji a string of names, and _then_ go to coffee with Junpei, my plan was interrupted though. Doumyouji had locked the doors. I was half tempted to stand on the seats (Which I hadn't attempted before but I don't think Doumyouji would have liked that.) and jump over the car door but Doumyouji pressed on the gas, flinging me back in my seat. I turned, glared, and then put my seatbelt on, just in case I needed something to strangle myself with something when the car exploded in a crash. 

            "What the hell was that all about?" I asked him angrily. 

            "You can't have coffee with another guy!" Doumyouji told me as if I had broken some sort of unspoken law. "You're my girlfriend!"

            "I'm not really your girlfriend, in case you've forgotten." I reminded him as I crossed my arms. "I think it's okay to have coffee with my friends!"

            "Your not having coffee with him!" Doumyouji countered. 

            "What are you? My dad?" I asked him. "You can't just order me around!" We were starting to get into a real shouting match. 

            "Apparently I can!" Doumyouji yelled back at me. "If you didn't really want me I think you would have actually fought me!" I paused with wide eyes. _W-what…_

            "What did you just say?" I asked him.

            "I said if you didn't really want me to take you home you would have fought a little harder." Doumyouji repeated. Except that wasn't exactly what he had said and I knew it. 

            "That's _not_ what you said." I told him. "You said 'If you didn't really want me I think you would have actually fought me.' What does that mean? Why do you keep saying things like that?"

            "None of your business!" Doumyouji snapped. He looked pissed at being caught in his own lie but he didn't argue with me about it. I looked the complete opposite direction from him the rest of the car ride. That was it; I was never talking to him again. It just wasn't even worth it. 

            I jumped out of the car as soon as I could and stomped away to my room. I was still tired I realized fast as I threw myself onto my bed. Even though I was angry, I decided to go to sleep. Some extra sleep was not a crime and I didn't feel like doing anything else. 

            I must have had the weirdest dream imaginable. I was at my own wedding. I couldn't figure out who the groom was at all. Then as he lifted my veil I saw that it was Doumyouji. When I tried to protest I found that I couldn't talk at all and had to go along with it. I woke up as I through the bouquet viciously at the guests. It was completely dark in my room and I looked at my clock. Ten o' clock. 

            The strange thing was, I was tucked in under my covers. I knew I had fallen asleep on top of my blankets but one could attribute it to moving around a lot in my sleep. Then I realized that I had also fallen asleep with my shoes on. But no, my shoes were on the floor, neatly sitting next to each other. There was more to this than I thought. Someone had been in there. 

            My first thought was perhaps, Rui. Rui did odd things from time to time. He left coffee in mugs right outside our doors sometimes. I can't tell if it's meant to be a practical joke or not. But Rui might have come into my room and put the blanket over me. Of course the person would have had to lift me up, then pull back the blankets without me waking up at all. I wasn't a deep sleeper so they would have had to been very good. 

            That's when another thought occurred. What about Doumyouji? But we had just been in an argument so I decided that maybe I had taken off my shoes and just happened to get under my covers in my sleep. This wasn't unheard of but I knew that my mind was making stuff up. _It couldn't have been Doumyouji…there's no way he'd be like that…_

            I noticed that my daisies were dying and threw them in the trash, for there really is nothing else to do for dying flowers. I didn't feel like going downstairs, as Doumyouji was probably down there. I did turn on my light and decided to read one of my various books. I chose Tad Williams' first Otherland book. It was a good series in my opinion. I read until eleven before I started to get sleepy again. I was changing into my pajamas when the door opened. Now I did the first thing that came to mind when a girl is caught without her shirt on. I screamed. Then took immediate action by hurling the nearest hard object at the person. 

            I covered myself up with my pajama shirt as quickly as possible before seeing who it was. A rather annoyed looking Doumyouji was holding my psychology book, which was obviously what I had thrown. There was a bruise rising on his forehead where it had hit. 

            "What was that for?" Doumyouji asked indignantly. 

            "Um, you have to knock! You can't just come in, I was changing!" I told him. 

            "I didn't even see anything." Doumyouji crossed his arms. "I was just coming to see if you were awake." 

            "Why?" I questioned him. 

            "Well, I wanted to say that maybe…maybe I overreacted a little today." Doumyouji admitted. 

            "That's an understatement." I shot back. 

            "I'm apologizing and you're sitting there saying things that make it worse!" Doumyouji accused me. "Could you be any harder to please?"

            "Me? You're the one who sat there acting like a dictator!" I put my hands on my hips, which seemed to be the battle stance of choice. 

            "Well I'm sorry!" Doumyouji yelled angrily. He threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "Are you happy now?"

            "Yeah I am!" I shouted back. Doumyouji and I sat there trying to stare the other down before he made an annoyed noise and left my room. I shook my head. It's a good thing that Doumyouji and me won't really going out because we would probably break up three hundred times a day.

            *                                                                                  *                                                                      *

            "I don't think your boyfriend likes me." Junpei told me looking a little nervous. I could understand being nervous. I mean in a fight between Doumyouji and Junpei, I would be forced to put my money on Doumyouji. But I didn't that there was going to be any fights so it was pretty safe to assume that Junpei was worrying too much. 

            "Doumyouji is stupid." I shook my head. "Don't worry about it."

            "I hope I didn't cause a fight." Junpei looked a little apologetic.

            "Oh no, I think _he_ caused the fight. Like I said, don't worry about it." I gave him a reassuring grin. Doumyouji and me had more or less made up. Though we were still pretty snappish around each other. 

            "Well okay." Junpei smiled a little. "We should do something this weekend." I wondered how well this would blow over with Doumyouji. Of course, Doumyouji didn't have to know everything that I do. Maybe, I just wouldn't tell him. Or better yet I would say I was hanging out with Makiko. He seemed to have no problems with me and all my _female_ friends. 

            "Okay! Let's do something on Saturday." I suggested. I had made up my mind. Doumyouji was not in charge of me. 

            "Great what time should I come by?" Junpei asked eagerly. 

            "Um, actually, why don't you meet me in the park behind the houses?" I asked him. "What's it called again?"

            "Kaede Park. They say it's named after the wife of the man who paid for it." Junpei informed me. 

            "Huh." I nodded. "I didn't know that."

            "Class settle down!" The teacher ordered. The class went instantly silent and we all got to work.

            *                                                                                  *                                                                      *

            On Saturday, I got up, picking out a nice outfit, not too nice as to raise suspicions at all. I went downstairs as Akira and Soujirou were sitting down at the table. They sat there as if waiting for something. Ten minutes went by of them sitting quietly, eyes going to their watches every now and then.

            "You think it's safe?" Soujirou asked Akira.

            "I think so." Akira looked around and saw only me. Apparently I was not a hindrance to whatever was going on.

            "He put them in the usual spot I suppose?" Soujirou asked. It kind of reminded me of those secret agent movies. I stifled a giggle. 

            "You'd think he'd figure out we knew where they were." Akira got up and walked out of the kitchen into the living room. A few moments later the longhaired boy came in toting a box of Lucky Charms. I rolled my eyes. 

            "You guys are so weird." I told them before sitting down at the table. We were all eating Lucky Charms when Rui came down closely followed by Doumyouji. 

            "Dammit! How did you guys find those?" Doumyouji asked as he took the box off the table. 

            "You hide them in the same place every time." Soujirou explained. I laughed. 

            "I'm tired." Rui announced as he sat down, putting his head on the table before looking as if he had just fallen asleep again. 

            "We should do something today." Doumyouji sat down pouring himself a bowl of cereal. 

            "Oh! I can't!" I started up in my best sorry voice. "I promised to hang out with Makiko today." I am a wonderful actress I decided.

            "Makiko? Why can't she just come along?" Soujirou asked with a wicked grin. 

            "Well I don't trust _you_." I joked. "We want to hang out with each other that's all." 

            "Well fine, Tsukushi is dumping us for girly time." Akira teased. "So, what do we want to do?"

            "I don't know." Doumyouji shrugged. 

            "Rui, why don't you go back to bed?" I asked him, as he tried to make his head more comfortable on the wooden table. 

            "No." He said in a sleepy whiney voice. I rolled my eyes. I looked up at the clock. I had slept pretty late and I had to meet Junpei at eleven. 

            "I should probably be going." I got up. "I'll see you guys later." 

            "Do you need a ride?" Doumyouji asked me.

            "No, no." I waved my hand out in front of me. "You stay here." I left the house feeling a confidence that I had tricked everyone. I walked out behind the house and tried to keep low as not to attract attention at all. As I got to the park, the place we decided to meet was the duck pond, and ran to our meeting spot. 

            "Hello Tsukushi!" Junpei was sitting there staring off into space until he spotted me. 

            "Hey Junpei!" I greeted him. "Nice day isn't it?"

            "I think so." He told me as I sat down on the bench next to him. "The ducks are happy." That sounded like something Rui would say, just for the sake of saying it. 

            I shrugged. "They might be." 

            "I'm happy." Junpei looked directly at me. "This is the first time I've been out with a friend."

            "Ever?" I asked.

            "Yeah." Junpei told me. I thought that was really sad. It would have been Rui if I hadn't constantly hung out with him. I punched Junpei good-naturedly in the arm. 

            "Well then I better not be boring huh?" I joked. "What do you want to do?" 

            "I don't care." Junpei shrugged. "Let's go walk around. This place is really big." And so we set off, running around, looking at the whole park. We pocketed wet quarters from the fountain just for the heck of it and climbed a few trees. It was a lot of fun. But fun always gets interrupted in my opinion. I mean it just seems like I try to do things and some how as if someone has planned it, things happen that change that.

            We were walking along the park, after just buying some ice cream. Junpei smiled at me brightly. Then I turned my head and froze. I stepped backwards behind a tree, slipping out of view. I had just seen a very unwelcome sight. I peaked around to see if I was just imagining things or not. 

            Doumyouji and the others were having a picnic. 

            _Oh crap…_I decided that the best thing to do was to just turn around and walk away so that I could slip away, not getting caught. But this plan didn't work out. 

            "Hey Tsukushi!" Rui waved wildly at me. I hit myself on the forehead. This was just my luck. Doumyouji looked up and caught sight of me. I thought I was going to die. He looked surprised until he saw Junpei walking next to me. 

            "Yo." The one word was so incredibly cold sounding that I gulped nervously. Doumyouji looked ready to kill. 

            "H-hi." I stepped out from behind the tree. I approached with Junpei tailing behind nervously.

            "So how was Makiko?" Doumyouji asked. I felt trapped but I quickly thought of a believable lie.

            "Oh well she was fine, actually I was coming back but I ran into Junpei who wanted to go get ice cream." I explained to them. "I didn't know you guys were going to have a picnic!" _Nice save Tsukushi! Way to go! _I could almost hear thunderous applause at my performance. 

            "Yeah, I just wanted ice cream you know?" Junpei covered for me. I smiled at him gratefully. "But actually I have to go now…" He looked nervously at his watch.

            "Oh see you Junpei!" I waved to him. "See you in class!" Junpei waved before running off. Doumyouji still looked a little suspicious as he watched me sit down next to him. 

            "You missed it Tsukushi! We played Star Fox and I won every time." Akira told me importantly. "Then Doumyouji got mad and we went on a picnic." I laughed a little too loudly. _Why is Doumyouji looking at me like that? _

            "You guys play video games more than anyone on the face of the planet." I stated. Soujirou and Akira just shrugged as though they had already acknowledged that fact themselves. 

            Rui was munching on his sandwich before looking up at us. "This park is cool." Doumyouji made an irate face.

            "One day I'll introduce you to me mom and we'll see what you think then." Doumyouji said crossly.

            "Huh?" I inquired.

            "My mom is the one this park is named after." Doumyouji explained giving me that weird look as if searching my face for something.

            "Your dad paid for this park?" I asked in surprise. 

            "Yep." Doumyouji nodded looking slightly distracted. We hung out at the park for about half an hour more before we headed back to the house. I was grateful that I hadn't really gotten caught though trust Rui, Captain Oblivious, to notice the weirdest things. When we were all back and Soujirou and Akira had settled down with video games, Rui had settled down to sleep, then Doumyouji came into my room.

            Now, I kind of suspected he knew I was lying but I didn't really think about it that much. I mean so I lied? Big deal. Or it seemed that way to me. Of course I learned pretty soon that not everyone saw it my way. 

            "What's up?" I asked as Doumyouji walked into my room. I was sitting on my bed and he sat down on the side of it, looking at the floor with a concentrated look.

            "Did you really go see Makiko today?" Doumyouji asked me. From the tone in his voice I hung my head. He knew the truth; he wanted me to admit it too. I felt so guilty at that moment and decided that I had to face what I had brought upon myself. 

            "No." I answered. 

            "Why did you lie to me?" Doumyouji questioned me, looking directly at my face; our eyes were locked in an invisible battle. 

            "Well…I knew if I told you what I was really doing you wouldn't let me go." I answered slowly. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach. I wondered why that was. That look of hurt that I swear flashed across Doumyouji's face was a little difficult to see.

            "That's right I wouldn't have!" Doumyouji agreed quickly. Then his voice became quieter. "Do you like Junpei?"

            "What? I like him as a _friend_." I put emphasis on the word. 

            "Does he like you as just a friend?" Doumyouji asked raising an eyebrow.

            "What do you think?" I fired back. 

            "I don't trust that guy at all." Doumyouji told me. "Promise not to lie to me." I blinked at the request. _Um…huh?_

            "Why?" I questioned. 

            "Promise not to lie to me." Doumyouji repeated himself. "I don't like it when you lie to me." 

            "What if it's direly important and I have to lie to you?" I asked. He shook his head.

            "Please." Doumyouji leaned towards me. "Promise not to lie to me." 

            _Should I promise? I mean how come Doumyouji thinks I should? He always says things like this! But…look at how he's looking at me…If I don't promise, I don't think he'll forgive me. Why do I feel like this? _

            "I promise." I finally said. I was surprised by my own defeat. Oh well maybe it was better this way. 

            "Thank you." Doumyouji murmured. I was a little confused. We sat there in silence for a long time, both of us contemplating our own thoughts.

            *                                                                                  *                                                                      *

            I recommend getting your heart trampled on to anyone. Yeah. That's my mood right now. So yeah. Okay well, I just posted this up because otherwise if I didn't have wonderful fans…I'd be a lot more sad right now. Doom. Love ya guys! Really. Okay I'm going to go and do…something…Man, I'm tired. I need COFFEEEEEEEE!!! My cappuccino ran out on me. COFFEE IS MY ONLY LOVE!!!  

Favorite Line From This Chapter: "You guys play more video games than anyone else on the planet." (Sounds like something Teresa said to me…) 


	8. Soujirou Turns Five, I Mean Twenty

I just got out of my choir tryout and I think I suck at sight singing. But I ruled singing America the Beautiful. (Okay, I didn't get to pick the song I sang otherwise I would have been sorely tempted to break out into Virtual Star Hassei-gaku (Revolutionary Girl Utena.)) Or maybe even…The Power of Love! I had that stuck in my head all day because I'm making a tape for my friend and I just HAD to put it on there. How can I be blamed? So without further ado, here's the chapter. 

Joanna: Well I think adorable is a pretty nice word so yeah. Go you!

Chris: I don't think there's going to be any Tsukushi/Kaede face-offs in _this_ story. ~_^

Sylentvoice: The best Tsukushi and Tsukasa fic ever???!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! **Bows** Ah, I feel honored. Sorry that this chapter is kind of short. I swear I make up for it later…

Fresh8: Thanks for your support!

Disclaimer: I do not own Hana Yori Dango.

Warnings: Cussing and goodness knows what else! 

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Eight

_"Responsibility,_

_What's that?_

_Responsibility,_

_Not quite yet,_

_Responsibility,_

_What's that?_

_I don't want to think about it,_

_We'd be better off without it." _

_            -Go for it Teresa, I know you know! (Just a song quote folks.)_

            _Why is this class so boring? _I yawned into my hand as I watched the clock tick away. This was my last class of the day and I wasn't really paying attention. I had already written down my homework assignment and waited patiently for the bell to ring. How come time goes by so slow at the end of the day? It should go faster. 

            The bell finally rang and I hopped out of my seat as fast as I could. I was so glad the day was over for school. I ran outside to the parking lot where Doumyouji was as usual. The only change was that Soujirou, Akira, and Rui were all sitting in the back seat. 

            "Hey, what's going on?" I asked them all. 

            "It's Soujirou's birthday!" Akira declared. "Guess where were going?"

            "An electronics store to stare at the video games you don't own?" I joked. This seemed a little too possible though.

            "Close!" Soujirou grinned. "We're going to Bullwinkle's!" I had to laugh at that. Bullwinkle's was a place that had miniature golf, go-karts, and an arcade. It was just funny how excited they all were to go. I mean not that I wasn't but I think it was slightly different from me. 

            "Cool." I slid into my seat. I turned to Doumyouji. "So how did they sucker you into this?"

            "Actually, it was my idea." Doumyouji admitted. I giggled. 

            "That explains it." I nodded my head. Soujirou leaned his head into the space between the passenger seat and driver seat.

            "Hey since it's my birthday can-" Soujirou was promptly cut off.

            "We went over this on Akira's birthday. No one drives the car but me." Doumyouji told him in a stern voice. 

            "Tsukushi got to!" Soujirou whined in protest. 

            "Dude, Soujirou, you can't use sex like a weapon like Tsukushi can. Just give it up." Akira told him. I turned around in my seat and smacked him upside the head. 

            "Akira!" My face was red. "You are going to die!" Doumyouji turned a corner way too sharply. 

            "Akira, I'll drop you off at the house and don't think I'll stop the car at all." Doumyouji threatened. He pressed the gas to the floor.

            "Practicing for those go-karts?" Soujirou cracked. 

            "Shut up." Doumyouji told him. We drove with a minimal amount of violence. (More threats on me and Doumyouji's part) Than we finally arrived at our destination. A surprise was waiting for us though. While pulling into the parking lot a very nice white convertible was right in front of us. I recognized the driver and passenger even from the back.

            "It's Shigeru and Tsubaki!" I exclaimed pointing to them. 

            "Shi-Shigeru?" Akira looked a little terrified. 

            "What are they doing here?" Soujirou asked Doumyouji. Doumyouji shrugged. We ended up parking right next to each other. 

            "Hey you guys!" Shigeru grinned at us. "What are you doing here?"

            "It's Soujirou's birthday!" I explained. "What are you guys doing?"

            "We decided to go miniature golfing." Tsubaki told us. "I suppose you guys are going to too?" We all nodded and soon we found ourselves getting golf clubs and lining up at the first hole. It was clear pretty fast who was good at miniature golf and who sucked. 

            Rui seemed to be the best and he looked like he didn't even take aim, making us feel incredibly stupid. Akira and Soujirou sucked. It was terrible how the numbers on their scorecards were growing. Doumyouji, Shigeru, Tsubaki, and I seemed to be about the same when it came down to it. 

            "Ugh, I'm gonna suck at this hole." I sighed as we approached the windmill hole. 

            "Not as bad as Akira and Soujirou." Shigeru reassured me. I started to take aim and swung my putter. Not only did I miss but it got knocked back right back to me. My shoulders dropped in defeat. Everyone else took their turn. Akira got his ball in the pond two holes away. Only Rui, Tsubaki, and Doumyouji made it through the windmill. I went up to bravely hit my ball. Suddenly I felt strong arms go around me, Doumyouji put his hands over mine on the putter.

            "Hey!" I tried to turn around but found I couldn't.

            "I'm helping you." Doumyouji informed me. I went bright red as I realized that Doumyouji was right up against me. He swung my arms for me. The ball went through the windmill and I smiled. I turned towards him. 

            "Thanks Doumyouji!" I went a little red when I realized that he hadn't taken his arms away. It was a weird moment in time. We just stood there looking at each other. 

            "See how lame they are?" Akira asked Tsubaki and Shigeru. "I mean they never do anything!" 

            "Maybe Tsukushi is shy…" Tsubaki suggested quietly. I've never really been described as shy but it didn't really bother me. I pecked Doumyouji's cheek as to divert suspicions. He went bright red and we walked towards the next hole, waiting for Akira and Soujirou to catch up. After we went through all eighteen holes (Rui winning of course) we decided to go for the go-karts. 

            We had to wait in a long line but it was worth it when we finally got up there. We all jumped in separate karts and took off. Doumyouji seemed to have an edge on the rest of us, which wasn't surprising considering how he drove a _regular _car. I finished in third, right behind Shigeru who almost made first. 

            Of course than we went inside and got pizza. We had ordered about four different pizzas because none of us could agree on what kind to get. 

            "I found a bunch of tokens in my go-kart!" Soujirou bragged. "I'm going to go win tickets!" He and Akira ran off together while the rest of us waited for our pizzas.

            "How old is Soujirou turning?" I asked. I knew that Soujirou, Akira, and Doumyouji were all in their second year of college.

            "Twenty." Doumyouji answered.

            "He sure acts his age." Shigeru joked. "What's been going on with you guys?"

            "Not much." I shrugged. 

            "I know! This campus has been a little dead lately. Maybe F6 needs to throw a party." Tsubaki commented.

            "Party?" Rui raised his eyebrows. "At your guys' house?" 

            "We've had parties before." Shigeru reminded him. The waiter set the pizzas down on our table. We began to dig in. 

            "Hey! You guys should have told us that there were pizzas!" Soujirou and Akira came back a little later, having cashed in their tickets for those plastic funny straws. They had a few sword fights with them before drinking smugly with them, looking down at all of us who had the plain white with the red strips straws. Sometimes I wondered if Soujirou and Akira were really as old as they claimed. 

*                                              *                                              *

            It was very late about two weeks later that I woke up dying of thirst. I clambered down the stairs wondering if there were only sodas in the fridge. I opened it up and saw that indeed I had lucked out. There was one left. I popped it open and took a few big gulps before stopping to take a deep breath. 

            Doumyouji walked into the kitchen without a shirt on. On instinct I turned away from him, my face going a little red. He saw me though.

            "Hey what are you doing up?" Doumyouji asked me. I turned to the clock. Three-oh-nine. 

            "I was thirsty." I still hadn't turned around. 

            "Hey! You took the last soda!" Doumyouji protested as he opened the fridge. "Is something wrong?" I blushed a little more. I bravely turned around.

            "N-no." I stammered. Okay so I haven't seen a lot of guys shirtless before! I mean that's not a big deal is it? 

            "Why are you all red?" Doumyouji questioned with a slight grin as if he already knew the answer. 

            "I'm not." I argued. I drank some more soda. Doumyouji took the can from me and started to drink out of it. "Hey that's mine!" I protested.

            "Not anymore." Doumyouji was smiling at me. "Of course…I'd be willing to let you have it back…" 

            "Come on! Give!" I tried to take it but he raised it over my head where I couldn't get it. 

            "How much do you want it?" Doumyouji questioned me. 

            "Just give…" I insisted trailing off when I saw the look on Doumyouji's face. It was very different then what I had seen on his face. It seemed like he wanted something from me. "Please?" I stuck out my lower lip pitifully as if I were five. Doumyouji handed me back the soda. I started to drink from it when I looked up at Doumyouji who seemed to be staring at the soda can or maybe even my mouth with a slightly hungry look. 

            "Tsukushi…" Doumyouji began, pulling the soda can away from my mouth. I froze at his touch. 

            "H-hey do you really want the soda that bad?" I joked nervously. 

            "It's not the soda I want." Doumyouji told me and I blinked in confusion. _RED ALERT! RED ALERT! SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY GOING ON! _

            "What's everyone doing up?" Rui had just walked in the door. We both turned towards him and my mind sighed for me. __

_            What just happened? Why do I feel like this? ARGH! Why is everything so confusing?  _

            "Rui where were you?" I asked him. After all, people don't just come home at three in the morning.

            "Places." He answered before taking the soda that was still in my hand and walking off with it. I stared after him, completely bewildered. Doumyouji looked a little ticked off for some odd reason. 

            "Well, I'm going back to bed." I yawned. "See you in the morning." 

            "See you." Doumyouji replied glumly. I walked back up the stairs to my room in a slight daze all the same.

*                                              *                                              *

            "Tsukushi?" Junpei asked me as we walked out of the last class of the day. "I want to do something again." I hesitated slightly. I wanted to be able to hang out to but of course there was a problem. A problem named Doumyouji. I wasn't allowed to lie to him and I knew he wouldn't let me hang out with Junpei. What the heck was I supposed to do?

            "Um, I'll have to see what I can do." I told him. "I mean I have to check my schedule and everything but I'm sure I can do something." 

            "Good." Junpei smiled at me. "I like spending time with you."

            "Yeah your fun to hang out with." I shook off the suspicions that were mostly Doumyouji's anyway. 

            "No." Junpei stopped and I turned to look at him. "That's not what I mean." 

            "What do you mean?" I asked him curiously. 

            "I mean…I want to spend lots of time with you. All the time that I can." Junpei told me. 

            _"Does he like you as a friend?" _

            I tried to remain calm but I kept thinking of those words. I'm sure Doumyouji was just way overly suspicious about everything, not that he had any right to be of course. He was just being a guy. 

            "J-Junpei…" I tried to think of something intelligent to say. It wasn't going quite as planned though. 

            "Hi Tsukushi!" I saw Kazuya wave at me as he walked by. 

            "Hi Kazuya." I waved back, glad that the tension was broken. "I have to go Junpei." I told him.

            "Okay. Bye." Junpei looked really disappointed. I pretended I couldn't think of why he might be disappointed. I walked to the parking lot where Doumyouji was waiting for me. 

            "Hey Doumyouji!" I called out as I ran towards him. His eyes widened suddenly and he tackled me. We rolled a few feet, stopping with me under him. I heard a sound like smashing glass and winced in memory "What the hell-"

            "Someone almost hit you with that bottle." Doumyouji gestured to what was now a pile of broken glass. "It came flying right for your head." Doumyouji explained. I realized that he was still on top of me and went a little red.

            "Your heavy." I told him. "Are you going stay there all day?" Doumyouji's face went red before he got off of me and helped me up. 

            "Well aren't you gonna thank me?" Doumyouji asked me.

            "Thank you." I said before going for the car. "Let's get out of here before anymore glass objects send me to the Infirmary." 

            "Good idea." Doumyouji agreed before we drove home together. When we got there Soujirou was playing Final Fantasy Eight while Akira sat there telling him what to do which was obviously annoying Soujirou. Rui would wake up from his spot on the couch every now and then, telling Soujirou to do some random thing, which was actually helpful. It was pretty fun to watch. 

            Someone knocked on the door and I left my afternoon entertainment to see who it was. I opened the door and found Shigeru, grinning from ear to ear. 

            "Tsukushi, guess what?" Shigeru asked in a singsong voice. 

            "What?" I raised my eyebrows in curiosity. 

            "House F6 is having a party." Shigeru informed me. "This Friday in fact. So tell all those losers to put down their video games and come." 

            "I will!" I vowed. "Do you need us to bring anything?"

            "Nothing but yourselves." Shigeru answered. "Well I have about a hundred more stops to go to after this one. I've got to get going!" With that she turned and waved at me. I waved back before she disappeared. I went back into the living room.

            "There's going to be a party." I told everyone as I came in.

            "Now cast-" Akira started up but Soujirou shut him up.

            "Where?" Soujirou asked. 

            "The F6 house." Rui answered for me. 

            "How did you know that?" I asked the half asleep boy.

            "Shizuka told me." Rui replied before seeming to fall asleep again. 

            "Alright a party!" Akira exclaimed. "We haven't had like _any_ for awhile." 

            "What's everyone going on about?" Doumyouji came down the stairs; he had gone upstairs while the rest of us were downstairs.

            "There's going to be a party at the F6 house." Soujirou explained. 

            "That's not that big of a deal." Doumyouji told us in a superior sort of tone. I rolled my eyes at him. He had been a little moody lately and I couldn't figure out why. Oh well, it was probably something weird knowing him.

*                                              *                                              *

            So yeah…kay…I hope people review this 'cause I will love them for it! Heehee. Oh I suppose I should put up another chapter of B.B.T.H.S! WOOHOO! Lemme think…chapter seven of B.B.T.H.S… Oh! I know what happens! 

Teresa: Um…duh, you're the author.

Jade: True…^_^!!!

            Happy weekend fun everyone and I hope I made it into the top choir like I wanted to! (It's called The Chorale which makes it sound like an evil organization plotting world domination. So obviously I must be in it!) 

Favorite Line From This Chapter: "It's not the soda I want." (That is so Doumyouji!!! All we needed was Tsukushi to drop a pillow…O.o) 


	9. That Was A Very Daring Dare

Okay the next controversial chapter of this fic. Now I hope I don't get a lot of angry reviews, just bare with me okay things will eventually get explained. I promise! Really! So yeah. Go Hana Yori Dango! (That came from nowhere.) Oh by the way, if anyone wants to donate money to the Buy Jade The HYD Gameboy Game fund, we are accepting donations at this time. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango.

Warning: Cussing, graphic violence, and reasons why we shouldn't play truth or dare…(Plus something I'm sure Teresa will remember…) 

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Nine

_"One more point of contention,_

_I need some intervention,_

_Up close your fake intentions,_

_Betray my short attention,_

_Span the distance,_

_Bridge the border,_

_Beg forgiveness,_

_Round the corner,"_

            _-Song Quote!_

            Now Doumyouji had said that it wasn't that big of a deal. Of course he was in a sort of moody streak when he said it. I quickly learned that it was a big deal. Or at least Doumyouji knew. 

            "No, try another one on." Doumyouji shook his head at the outfit I was wearing. I was sick of going in and out of the dressing room. 

            "Do I really have to get a new outfit?" I whined as I stomped back into the dressing room, having to try on yet another outfit.

            "Yes!" Doumyouji yelled from where he was sitting comfortably and had been for at least half an hour. I felt kind of weird because Doumyouji was way into this by now. I was so sick of clothes I was ready to just go naked if I had too. I tried on another outfit. This one consisted of a short black skirt and a navy blue button up shirt that was rolled up at the sleeves. I trudged out knowing he would just send me back.

            But Doumyouji didn't send me back. He looked me up and down in a way that made me feel like I was far more scantily clad then I actually was. 

            "So?" I asked him. 

            "That's the one." Doumyouji looked like he was a second away from drooling. 

            "Hey you better not be thinking any weird thoughts!" I put my hands on my hips. My face was heating up though. I walked back inside the dressing rooms and took the outfit on, changing into my original outfit for the day. I took the outfit that Doumyouji had so obviously loved. 

            I came back out and we purchased the outfit that I would wear that night at the party. Doumyouji had gone through my closet, making a big mess, before declaring I didn't have anything to wear. It was just stupid. I mean if anyone should have done that it was I, but I let him take me into town just stop him from throwing a tantrum or something. We got into the car as we left the place. I was glad we had finally just bought something. 

            "You know, I don't think anyone is going to be paying any attention to what I'm wearing." I told Doumyouji, crossing my arms. 

            "I will be." He said and then looked surprised that he had said it. 

            "Like I said, don't be getting any weird ideas! I'm only wearing that outfit because of this party. Otherwise…" I trailed off, looking at him from the corner of my eye.

            "Yeah yeah." Doumyouji muttered. We pulled up in front of the house at around three in the afternoon. I got out with my shopping bag and went into the house to find Rui sleeping on the couch. Oddly Soujirou and Akira weren't playing video games. As I went up the stairs I learned why pretty fast.

            "Where's my blue shirt?" Akira stuck his head out of his room and yelled across to the hall. 

            "Does this match?" Soujirou came out in a pair of black pants and a white shirt. I smothered a giggle into my hand. 

            "Yes it does." Akira told him truthfully. I was trying hard not to start laughing outloud. I burst into giggles as I shut the door to my room. We weren't going to the party for several hours yet and those guys were already freaking out about what they were wearing? There was a knock at my door.

            "Yeah?" I asked. Soujirou opened my door.

            "Hey, what's Makiko's favorite color?" Soujirou asked me. 

            "Blue." I answered. "Why?" 

            "Okay just wanted to know." Soujirou closed the door. I started laughing again. It reminded me of prom night at Makiko's. A bunch of the girls all got ready. I had actually convinced Rui to go but he was practically asleep by the time we got to the dance so it wasn't the most amazing night I've ever had. 

            This went on for several hours. Apparently Soujirou and Akira had to have a female opinion on just about everything they had on. I tried to keep a straight face but couldn't manage. This was interspersed with Doumyouji passing by my door in various states of getting ready. One stuck out in my mind.

            I had been going down for a snack, I was hungry after all. I was coming back up the stairs with a mouth full of cheese and crackers. Doumyouji came by without a shirt on and his hair was lying completely flat. In fact I thought that he was Rui for half a second. 

            "D-Doumyouji?" Except it wasn't nearly so clear as my mouth was full of food. _Very chic. _

"What?" He turned towards me. 

            "Your hair…it's not curly!" I exclaimed, reaching up and touching it for reassurance that it was real. 

            "It's wet." Doumyouji looked a little peeved as if he thought I were making fun of him or something.

            "It's cute." The words I swear popped out without any permission at all. "I mean…it's…you know…" I could feel my face get redder with every word. 

            "You better not be getting any weird ideas." Doumyouji had a grin that was probably a mile wide on his face as he reached out and touched my nose with his index finger, before strutting (I swear!) off downstairs. If I thought I have ever blushed before, it was nothing to what my face looked like at that moment. 

            At around five I decided to get ready. Akira and Soujirou were still going through outfits. I put on my outfit and started to make my hair look really nice. (I wasn't about to be shown up by a bunch of boys.) I wished I had a friend there that was girl because I didn't want to ask Akira and Soujirou about whether I looked all right. I decided that if I didn't, I really didn't care. 

            I finally left my room to find that Akira and Soujirou had finally gotten in outfits that they deemed suitable. Doumyouji was somewhere still in his room. I went down and flopped down on the couch, waiting for the others. Rui was sleeping still. 

            "Hey Rui, we're going to leave soon." I shook him a little. "Do you want to change?"

            "Make me." Rui muttered in his sleep before turning over and going right back into dreamland. 

            "Hey how do I look?" Soujirou came down the stairs. I noted that his shirt was blue, which wasn't surprising. 

            "You look fine." I beamed at him.

            "Fine?" Soujirou scratched his head. "That's all?"

            "No Soujirou, you're the hottest thing to grace the planet." I told him my voice dripping with sarcasm. He rolled his eyes at _me_. Akira came downstairs and sat down on an armchair. 

            "How come Doumyouji takes so long?" Akira asked impatiently. "He _has_ a girlfriend." 

            "Hmm?" Rui opened his eyes. "Time to leave?"

            "As soon as Doumyouji gets down here." Soujirou informed him. Rui sat up and rubbed his eyes. That was extent of his getting ready. Doumyouji walked down the stairs and everyone who was sitting jumped up. Doumyouji was wearing a red shirt with a tie and he looked…well never mind. 

            "Let's get going." Doumyouji told them. I was trying not to stare which was hard although I pretended I couldn't think of why. I decided I looked like a total dork at that point. 

            "Hey Tsukushi, you gonna pick your chin off the floor?" Soujirou winked at me. I hadn't even realized my mouth was open. I closed it quickly. We didn't drive. (What a miracle.) We walked there.

            "How come you aren't driving?" Akira asked Doumyouji.

            "I don't want my car anywhere near a party." Doumyouji said looking very dignified. 

            "Remember New Year's?" Soujirou grinned. "Your car _was_ the party."

            "That's exactly why I'm not bringing it." Doumyouji explained. 

            "What happened?" I asked curiously. 

            "It's not a story for girlfriends." Akira stated. I rolled my eyes. I didn't really want to know anyways. We approached the F6 house where Shigeru had seemed to appoint herself the bouncer of the party. She stopped us at the door.

            "Oh it's you guys! Welcome to the party." Shigeru bowed slightly and gestured inside grandly. We went inside and Soujirou made a beeline for Makiko. I reminded to keep an eye on him just in case. Akira seemed to lose himself in the crowd and then I realized that I wasn't sure Rui had come in the door with us. 

            Doumyouji and me ended up hanging out on a couch, talking to Tsubaki, occasionally Shigeru (When she wasn't throwing people out of course) and a myriad of girls who wanted to know if I was really Doumyouji's girlfriend. I bet they'd be pissed if they knew the truth. 

            "Hey!" Shigeru jumped up at a blonde guy with blue eyes. "I don't know how _you_ got in but it wasn't through the front door!" Shigeru drug the guy out of the party with a strength that I thought was pretty impressive.

            "That Thomas is so annoying! If I were Shizuka I would just get it over with and get a restraining order." Tsubaki shook her head. 

            "I know! He's such a creep!" Shigeru agreed as she plopped down in a chair next to Tsubaki. 

            "Tsukushi!" Makiko walked over to me closely followed by Soujirou. He looked like a dog or something. "What's going on?"

            "Just hanging out." I shrugged as she stopped a few feet a way. Soujirou was approached by someone and while he was distracted I could not help my curiosity. "So how's it going with Soujirou?" 

            "Oh he's so cute!" Makiko exclaimed before going red in the face. "He's really nice too!" 

            "I'm glad you like him." I smiled, happy for my friend. Soujirou seemed to appear right behind Makiko.

            "What are you guys talking about?" Soujirou asked. 

            "THAT'S IT!" Shigeru jumped up, the same blonde haired guy had gotten into the house it seemed. Shigeru grabbed him and pushed him right out the door, turning the lock in place behind him. "I'm going to go check the backdoors." 

            "Hello." Shizuka approached our group with Rui. "How is everyone?"

            "Good." Tsubaki told her. "We've had to kick out Thomas about four times already but I'm sure Shigeru will just call the police next time."

            "I'm sorry about that…" Shizuka bit her lip and I was surprised anyone could look pretty while they did that. Rui said something to her and she giggled. 

            "Hi Tsukushi." Junpei's shy voice made me turn around to see him looking at me. Doumyouji put his arm around me I turned to give the curly haired boy a sour look. 

            "Hi Junpei!" I decided that even if Doumyouji was going to glare daggers at anyone of the opposite sex that dared to speak to me then he could just do that. "How do you like the party?"

            "Aren't you one of Sakurako's friends?" Tsubaki asked him curiously. "I thought I saw you…oh that was around Christmas here at the party." 

            "I've never met him." Sakurako approached us. "But no time like the present eh? I'm Sanjou Sakurako." Sakurako shook Junpei's hand. 

            "I'm Junpei." Junpei introduced himself. Sakurako was already paying attention to someone else though.

            "Doumyouji! You look so great." Sakurako flashed a winning smile at him. 

            "Hey Sakurako." Doumyouji sounded like he was greeting his executioner. Sakurako sat on the other side of Doumyouji on the couch even though there really wasn't any room. 

            "Don't seem so excited to see me." Sakurako joked as she leaned towards him with a seductive light in her eyes. 

            "Hey Sakurako, don't think that just because you live in this house doesn't mean I can't kick you out." Shigeru was smiling through the threat, which made it seem kind of scary on her part. Shigeru winked at me though. I knew she was trying to stick up for me and I smiled gratefully back. 

            "What time is it?" Tsubaki asked looking around for a clock. Soujirou looked at his watch.

            "It's about a quarter to midnight." Soujirou commented. I couldn't believe we had been there for so long already.

            "Shigeru?" Tsubaki raised an eyebrow. "You know I want the others out of my party by midnight." 

            "Midnight?" I asked politely. 

            "That's when the real party starts." Shigeru explained to me. "This is just kind of the pre-emptive party for everyone else." Shigeru went off with a yell. Pretty soon people were leaving all around us till there was only Doumyouji, Tsubaki, Sakurako, Makiko, Soujirou, Rui, Shizuka, Junpei, Akira, Shigeru, and me. 

            "So what do you guys want to do?" Tsubaki asked us. 

            "Let's play something fun." Soujirou had a wicked gleam in his eye and I wondered what his definition of fun was at that moment. 

            "The usual?" Akira asked. Soujirou nodded. 

            "I hate playing Truth or Dare." Rui complained. Shizuka patted his hand comfortingly. 

            "I get to go first!" Shigeru claimed right away. "And I pick…Tsukushi! So truth or dare?"

            "Um…truth." I wasn't feeling quite up for a dare yet. Maybe later. 

            "How far have you and Doumyouji gotten?" Shigeru asked. My face went bright red. I had to think of something believable but there was no way I was telling anyone that we went really far. 

            "Just making out." I lied. Doumyouji pulled me a little closer in a reassuring way. 

            "That's because they're both dorks." Soujirou snorted. I rolled my eyes. 

            "Whatever. I guess it's my turn. Um…" I scanned everyone in the room. "Sakurako, truth or dare?" 

            "Dare." Looked like she was feeling brave. I tried to think of a good one. 

            "Tsubaki? Where's your guys kitchen?" I asked. Tsubaki jumped up and everyone followed us into the kitchen. I opened up the fridge and pulled out what I was looking for. 

            "An egg?" Sakurako guessed. 

            "Yes but you have to put it in your mouth and crack it open." I explained. Sakurako made a disgusted face at me. 

            "Ew…" Sakurako murmured before bravely putting the egg in her mouth, closing her eyes tightly as she cracked down on it. She ran over and spit out the broken over egg into the sink. "That was gross." She informed us. We all laughed at the face she was making. Then we sat in the kitchen playing a few more rounds. Then Soujirou got Doumyouji. 

            "Hey Doumyouji, truth or dare?" Soujirou grinned at him. I could tell Soujirou had something planned already.

            "Dare." Doumyouji sounded like he couldn't care less.

            "Hmm…get Tsukushi's bra off." Soujirou probably had the most daring dare that whole evening and didn't even really know it. My whole face was twitching. 

            _Tell me that's not really the dare…I'm going to kill Soujirou and Doumyouji!_

            "In front of everybody?" I asked. I was hoping that they would let us go into a room by ourselves so that I could just take the thing off myself. 

            "He doesn't need to take your shirt off." Soujirou told me. Doumyouji had _the_ weirdest expression on his face.

            "Alright! Go for it Tsukasa!" Shigeru cheered him on.

            "This game isn't that boring." Rui told Shizuka who stifled a giggle. Everyone was looking at us expectantly. Now normally this would have worked out fine except that day I had chosen to wear a black bra under my shirt because a white one showed up. The problem with my black bra was that its clasp was in the front and not the back. 

            _Maybe I can fake sick! Maybe I'll get lucky and everyone else will get sick! _

            Doumyouji turned towards me and I gulped. I turned my face away as I felt his hands go up the sides on the inside of my shirt. I wanted so bad to be able to punch him in the face. He was having trouble with the clasp though. I thought he would never get that thing off but he did. I didn't realize how tensed up I was until it was all over with. I took my bra from Doumyouji, stuffing it in my small handbag that I had brought with me. 

            _Oh my god…that didn't just happen…_ I decided that I would never be able to look at Doumyouji again. I was completely mortified. The rest of the game was not nearly as eventful as that one dare had been. Tsubaki had to kiss Akira at one point, which ended with Shigeru cracking some weird inside joke and Tsubaki cracking up in the middle of her kiss. Junpei was frowning around at all of us as if were making fun of him, but we were including him in the game. 

            I tried to give him a friendly smile but he sent me a slightly cold look back. Well fine, if he was going to be a total spoilsport than he could just be that way. I think we realized it was getting late until Shigeru yawned. 

            "I'm with Shigeru, we're getting up early to make you guys all waffles so we should probably hitting the sack soon." Tsubaki remarked. It was really late and apparently it was a tradition for them to have us spend the night and make waffles. We got comfortable in the large upstairs sitting room where I had first met Tsubaki.

            Shigeru was handing out blankets to people. Doumyouji was fighting Soujirou for the couch, I rolled my eyes as Shigeru handed me a blanket. 

            "Well that's the last of them." Shigeru told us. 

            "I don't have one." Doumyouji looked up at her. 

            "I gave one to Tsukushi." Shigeru explained as if this answered all questions. "Nighty-night." I felt like my eyes were going to pop out of my head. First the truth or dare thing (I was never going to play again) and now between Doumyouji and me, we only had one blanket? (A.N. is anyone else getting a bit of a Miroku vibe?) 

            "Um…" Doumyouji and me looked each other in the face for the first time since the "incident." 

            "Those two would probably get married and sleep in separate beds." Soujirou snorted. I glared at him. 

            "Shut up Soujirou!" I snapped at him. Okay so I was a tad bit angry at the moment. Angry enough to violently hurt someone. Doumyouji had won the couch it seemed and I would rather just stay up all night then have to share the couch with him. We'd probably end up practically on top of each other. I knew I had to do it though. I miserably laid down next to him, putting the blanket over us. 

            This was the most awkward position I have ever been in.

            I was so tensed up that I'm sure it was like sleeping next to a board. Doumyouji didn't to mind however. Someone must have turned the light off but I was too sleepy to really remember. We kept shifting though. It seemed like Doumyouji kept ending up closer to me while I kept trying to get away. I ended up in a _very _compromising position when I somehow got under him. 

            "Doumyouji…" I trailed off angrily. 

            "What? It's not my fault!" Doumyouji protested at me with what looked like in the bare minimum of light a very red face. 

            "You guys are choosing _now_ to do that?" Akira asked us sounding really tired. "Go to sleep!" I finally just turned onto my side and felt Doumyouji put an arm over me, probably so he would be comfortable or something. I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

            But I was woken up. It was still pretty dark outside when someone shook me very gently. 

            "Tsukushi?" The voice was a male one that I knew. I opened my eyes to see Junpei standing over me. 

            "Huh?" I rubbed my eyes a few times. "What?"

            "I need to tell you something." Junpei motioned for me to come follow me. I slid off the couch so I wouldn't wake up Doumyouji. I followed Junpei out into the hallway. 

            "What's up?" I asked curiously. Junpei just stood there looking at me as if contemplating something to himself. That's when he seemed to make a decision. He grabbed my upper arms suddenly and kissed me. I flailed wildly. 

            "Junpei!" I pushed him away. "I don't-"

            "I don't care." Junpei kissed me harder with a lot more force, pushing me up against a wall. I struggled against him. 

            "Junpei! Knock it off!" I pushed as hard as I could this time. He fell to the floor. That's when I felt my legs being kicked out from under me. I started to get up but Junpei knocked me down. He pinned my arms down, kissing me again. I kept trying to lift my arms but it wasn't working. 

            Junpei moved so that he could pin my arms down with only one hand while moving his other all over my body. I tried kicking but it didn't work. I had to get away. Tears started to well up in my eyes as his hand started to go up my skirt. I tried to move my head away from him but he was so much stronger. I had always thought I was pretty strong but it seemed I was wrong. 

            I realized that I wasn't getting away. Junpei was going to rape me. I struggled desperately against it with all that I could. That's when something happened that even then I couldn't believe _would_ happen. 

            "Get the hell off her." The voice told Junpei dangerously before I felt someone actually throw Junpei off of me. I was a mess though. I turned my head, not moving from the position I had been in, to see Doumyouji beating the crap out of Junpei. Tears were still flowing from my eyes. 

            Several people heard the sounds of the struggle and came out of the sitting room. Soujirou and Akira looked somewhere between surprised and horrified. Makiko rushed to try to help me up. I was too much in a daze though. Akira and Soujirou rushed over, pulling Doumyouji off of Junpei. Soujirou dragged Junpei out of sight for which I was grateful. 

            "Tsukushi? Tsukushi what happened?" Makiko asked me. I was _still _crying. I felt like the biggest crybaby. I knew I was supposed to be tough but I couldn't help it, I was terrified, my whole body was shaking from the memory. My throat was so dry that I couldn't talk at all. Doumyouji picked me up right then, cradling me as gently as he possibly could.

            "D-Doumyouji…" I croaked out. He looked down at me with the most pained eyes I had seen. 

            "Shhhh…I'm right here." Doumyouji sat down with me in his lap, cradling me in his arms, rocking me slightly. Akira and Soujirou were talking with the others but I couldn't make out what they were saying. I leaned my head against the warm body that held me, closing my eyes and wishing for it all to be a dream.

*                                                          *                                                          *

            Yeah so…hmm…what does one say at this profound moment in time. I know! Just review and call Junpei a crap head. Or a rape head! Omigod, Teresa, Ruko!!!!!!!!!!!! 

            Jade: TERESA!!! I have a wiggy wiggy for two, just me and you!

            Teresa: **Shaking her head** Why…why do you always make me come into your author notes?

            Jade: Cause it's fun! 

            Favorite Line From This Chapter: "It's not a story for girlfriends." (What DID happen at that party???) 


	10. Let's All Pitch In And Buy Tsukushi Dedu...

So, we're Stabbing Westward. Just kidding! Oh well I've got my mixed tape so that I don't have to sit there switching cds and decided that everyone would want a new chapter to find out what was going on now! I mean I just left off with her in Doumyouji's arms (Lucky dog) and Junpei getting his ass kicked. (Serves him right that little…) So okay, let's roll people!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango.

Warning: The whole nine yards. Um, cussing I would think…beyond that I'm not too sure. 

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Ten

_"Say it ain't so,_

_I will not go,_

_Turn the lights off,_

_Carry me home."_

_            -All The Small Things_ Blink 182 (Sorry 'Resa.) 

            I guessed at one point while numbly letting Doumyouji rock me in his arms, I fell asleep. I woke up, feeling a little bit better. I was still upset though. My whole mind set was pretty bad. My eyes went up towards Doumyouji's face. He seemed to have fallen asleep too. I smiled weakly at him. 

            "Tsukushi?" A soft female voice said questioningly. I looked up to see Makiko standing with her head in the doorway. 

            "Makiko?" I found it a little hard because of the way that Doumyouji's arms were wrapped around me, but I sat up as best I could. 

            "Tsukushi, what happened?" Makiko's eyes were full of worry. "All we saw was Doumyouji practically killing Junpei and you were…what happened?" I felt my eyes began to water and my throat grow dry again.

            "Junpei…he…" I tried to get out. Doumyouji moved in his sleep, pulling me closer to him. "Doumyouji…saved me."

            "Junpei raped you?" Makiko asked me in a sort of horrified tone. I shook my head. "Oh Tsukushi…"

            "I-I'll be fine." I tried to make it sound brave but it came out wimpy. 

            "Tsukushi, look how shaken up you are! Don't try to tell me you'll be fine!" Makiko told me. "I know you, your going to try to pretend that it didn't bother you but it's okay! It's okay if it did." 

            "Thanks…Makiko." I had to smile a little, Makiko was right. How often had I tried to pretend things didn't affect me? With that Makiko smiled and turned away from me.

            "I'm glad your okay. Tsubaki and Shigeru are making waffles. Do you want to tell the others what happened or should I?" Makiko turned her head looking at me. 

            "I don't really want to…Makiko, will you?" I felt like I was asking a terrible thing of my friend but I knew I would have too hard of a time telling the others. 

            "Of course I will. I'll leave you alone so you can get some more sleep." Makiko shut the door behind her and then once more, I was alone with Doumyouji who slept on. Not for very much longer though. Doumyouji's eyes blinked open.

            He sat there staring at me for a long time. Our eyes seemed to be trying to send the other some message. I wasn't sure what my message was exactly. 

            "Tsukushi…" Doumyouji trailed off. "How do you feel?" I couldn't help it. All the things that I withheld inside myself, all my fear came rushing at me. I hugged him tightly, scared to let go although I could not understand why. 

            "I thought…no one was coming…Junpei he…" I cried into Doumyouji's shirt. He was once more rocking me, stroking my head to soothe me as if I were a small child. We stayed like that for a while, I'm not sure how much time had past or what time it was in the day. I opened my eyes, pulling a little away from him. I dried my eyes with the back of my hand. "I'm sorry." I don't know why I was apologizing, I just was.

            "It's okay." Doumyouji told me. "I don't mind." 

            "Yeah but…you know, I hate to get your shirt all wet." I joked rather weakly. Suddenly I felt head being pressed against Doumyouji's chest. My face went a little red at that point. 

            _AHHHHHHHHH! What the heck is Doumyouji doing? _

            "You aren't a bother to me at all!" Doumyouji whispered fiercely. I felt my heart start to pound. "I don't want you to ever feel that way." 

            "D-Doumyouji…" I stammered. Why was it that I could never think right? 

            "Don't…don't say anything." Doumyouji told me, still holding me against him in some sort of urgency. I let him keep his arms around me not saying anything. There was something about it that made me feel safe. It was a little odd. He finally did let go though. 

            "Sheesh someone would think we actually _were_ going out." I shook my head slightly. 

            _Could this silence be anymore awkward? _

            A haunting silence had set down between us. I felt kind of like I shouldn't have said anything. Doumyouji was studying my face, looking for something that only he could see. I did not turn away from his eyes but I don't know why he was looking at me like that. 

            "Um…" A voice interrupted our silence. I sighed a little, partly in relief. Shigeru was standing there. "Do you guys want waffles? We um, finished making them all for the others so if you do want some, we're all down in the kitchen." 

            "Sounds good." Doumyouji nodded at her. Shigeru smiled but to me it seemed a little forced as she turned around, closing the door behind her. "Are you hungry?"

            "I guess." I'm not sure I should be eating with my stomach doing flip-flops like this but I was willing to go with it. Through my confusion I could tell that my tummy wouldn't mind some delicious golden waffles. I followed Doumyouji downstairs, he was holding my hand the whole time, and went into the kitchen. Akira and Soujirou were solemnly eating waffles still, Tsubaki and Shigeru immediately wore forced looking smiles, Sakurako looked like the world had just ended, Rui had that faraway look in his eyes, while Shizuka was gazing at me with eyes full of pity, and Makiko was picking on a waffle.

            "Good morning Tsukushi, well, really it's good afternoon isn't it?" Tsubaki tried to joke. I looked at the small light up numbers on the oven. It was two in the afternoon. I realized that Tsubaki was trying to make an effort to make things seem normal for me. 

            "Good afternoon." I smiled a little, sitting down in a chair next to Doumyouji.  "Hey, what's with all these glum faces?" I had to pretend to be normal too. It hadn't affected me that bad. Or so I was telling myself. 

            Silence. 

            "Good morning Tsukushi." Akira sounded as if he had just noticed my presence in the room even though I was sitting right across from him. "Soujirou thinks he can beat me at eating waffles." Akira's laughter was a little strained. 

            "I will too." Soujirou insisted in a teasing manner, sounding almost like he was acting in a play. I clenched my fists slightly. I wasn't a doll, I wasn't going to break! So why is everyone being so careful around me? I didn't want to ruin everyone's day. 

            "That's it! You guys, I know what happened to me was bad but you can't act like this! If there's something you people want to say than say it!" I amended folding my arms across my chest. Everyone looked rather stunned at this. 

            "We're really sorry it's just that nothing like this has ever happened before." Tsubaki was biting her lip. "I just wasn't sure what to do…" 

            "Good to see you're still yourself!" Shigeru gave me a genuine smile. "I was worried." 

            "I'm sorry about what happened!" Makiko chimed in. "That guy was lucky that he isn't dead right now!" 

            "Really lucky. Doumyouji would have killed him, but that guy isn't worth it at all! I'm glad I got to throw him out." Soujirou joined in to the, what now seemed, much less tense group. 

            "We'll see just what happens if he tries to come around again!" Akira remarked waving his fork threateningly. Doumyouji who was still holding my hand squeezed it in reassurance. I smiled at everyone the best I could. They were all my friends, trying to make sure that I felt better. I was grateful.

            "So how about a waffle?" I asked them all. "Before Soujirou and Akira eat the rest!"

*                                              *                                              *

            I took a deep breath as I approached my Psychology class. It had taken a lot of one car ride to convince Doumyouji that he didn't need to actually come and sit in my class, which was what he wanted to do. I told him that was ridiculous; Junpei would have to be completely stupid to pull anything in a class. I did appreciate the gesture though. 

            I stepped inside my eyes darting around. Yuuki and Sakurako were waving at me, an empty seat next to them. I rushed over to it like it was a sanctuary. 

            "Hey, how are you doing?" Sakurako had looked pretty distraught lately, as if something bad had happened to her. I had asked but she said that she was fine. If she didn't want to talk about it, I wasn't about to push it. 

            "Fine." I answered. "How was your weekend Yuuki? I barely saw you!" 

            "Oh I wasn't at the party, I felt sick to my stomach! I was puking everywhere away from everyone." Yuuki told me wryly. "I overheard Shigeru talking about Doumyouji almost killing someone? What was that about?"

            "Erm…you know Doumyouji." I quickly brushed off the comment. Sakurako knew, in fact Sakurako had this slightly faraway look in her eyes. I let my eyes do a quick and slightly fearful sweep of the classroom. Junpei was nowhere in sight. I had to admit right there, I felt about three hundred times less nervous. I can't explain the fear that came with the very mention of his name. It may seem a little weak but that was just the way that things were. 

            My day went pretty well in my opinion. Classes were interesting, which was nice. After school I went out into to the parking lot to find Doumyouji batting away the oh so clever attempts of Asai to get Doumyouji out on a date. I rolled my eyes as he waved a little frantically towards me. It made me want to laugh but I didn't.

            "Doumyouji…" Asai's voice rose in a whine. "This sort of trash should be left aside." She looked rather pointedly at me. 

            "Asai, if you insult her one more time where I can hear it, you can bet that I'll tell Tsubaki all about it. Tsubaki will have you out of the F6 house before you can blink!" Doumyouji threatened as I approached. I shook my head a little. 

            "I-I…" Asai stammered before giving me a rather nasty look, then turning on her heel, stalking off towards a group of waiting friends. 

            "Eitoku's chick magnet, hard at work." I joked. Doumyouji did not seem to find it very funny. He was grumbling under his breath as we got into the car.

            "That's really funny." Doumyouji told me looking at me sideways. "How was your day?"

            "It was fine." I answered, looking out the window at passing pedestrian. Then I saw a sight that at first made me grip the sides of my seats. 

            I had just seen Junpei, but when I bravely looked back I realized that Sakurako was yelling at him as our car past. I wondered what was going on right there. Of course I didn't ask. I also didn't point him out to Doumyouji who probably would have taken it as an excuse to run him down. 

            "Did you have any…_problems_?" Doumyouji put emphasis on the last word to make sure I knew what he was referring to.

            "Nope." I shook my head. "No problems."

            "Good." Doumyouji turned a corner. When we arrived at the house we found Akira playing video games without Soujirou. Rui was sleeping on his place on the couch. 

            "Where's Soujirou?" I asked Akira as he stuck out his tongue in concentration.

            "Apparently he was taking Makiko out to the coffee." Akira told me with a big grin. 

            "Oh really?" I raised my eyebrows. "I don't know if I trust him that much…" I was smiling though so that everyone knew that I was joking. Well, I was really only half joking. With some of the comments that Soujirou had given _me_ I felt rather justified. 

            "I like…eggs…" Rui mumbled as he opened his eyes. He looked at us, looked at the TV screen then fell right back onto the couch, falling asleep in a matter of seconds.

            "Does he have narcolepsy?" Doumyouji asked the rest of us. Akira and me looked at each other before shrugging in unison. 

            "If he did, it wouldn't surprise me." Akira turned back to his video game. "You guys should take advantage of this situation." Akira winked at Doumyouji and me. 

            "Gee, really big advantage, instead of three of you in the house there's only two of you." I muttered sarcastically. 

            "Sheesh, I was just trying to be helpful." Akira was only half paying attention to us. I rolled my eyes at him. 

            "I've got some homework." I informed everybody before going up the stairs on the way to my room. I got to work on my homework right away. It didn't take that long and I found myself bored out of my mind my around five o'clock. I was staring at the ceiling when there was a knock at the door.

            "Come in." I told whoever it was. I decided that some of the dots on the ceiling made shapes. A carrot, a cloud, a ship, I decided that I way too much time on my hands. 

            "Are you busy?" Doumyouji came into the room. I took my eyes away from the ceiling with a slight smile. _Busy being the only person who sits around finding shapes on their ceilings_.

            "Nah, not really." I replied. "What's up?"

            "I just wanted to know if you wanted to do something." Doumyouji looked a little weird. It was a strange face he was making, somewhere between hopeful and trying to look nonchalant. I decided I was reading too much into it.

            "Erm…maybe. Like what?" I asked him. Doumyouji hesitated slightly. 

            "Maybe…go out and have dinner…" Doumyouji suggested trying his best to sound vague. _What's up with Doumyouji? He's making it seem like he has some ulterior motive…_

            "Um, okay." I agreed. "So I guess we better round everybody up huh?"

            "No…I meant just you and me." Doumyouji explained. I blinked a few times in confusion. 

            "Just you and me?" I asked in surprise. "You know the other guys are going to be pissed."

            "Well, they can just deal with it. Come on, grab your coat." Doumyouji prompted me. I grabbed my coat and followed him down the stairs. 

            "Bye Akira and Rui!" I called out as we past the living room.

            "Bye!" Akira was actually playing video games with a now awake Rui and losing, so he didn't look like the happiest person in the house. We walked out to the car. The sun was coming near to setting; you could tell that the day would soon be night. 

            Doumyouji actually seemed a little nervous as we pulled out. I looked at him curiously, wondering what he was thinking about.  

            "So what's new with you?" I asked although I was pretty sure that if anything new had happened without my knowledge, it was probably in his classes.

            "Nothing really." Doumyouji spared a glance from the road to look at me. "Why?"

            "Well you seem kind of like you're in another place." I commented. "Something on your mind?"

            "No." Doumyouji said a little too quickly. I shook my head a little, looking away from him. So Doumyouji didn't want to talk about it. It probably wasn't even my business anyway. I still wanted to know though.

            "Oh okay." I smiled at him. "You don't have to tell me, I understand." 

            "It's stupid anyway, just stuff like classes." Doumyouji explained to me, shrugging a little. "If it was worth telling I'd tell." It struck how close me and Doumyouji had grown. When we first met, we were at each other's throats and now we looked out for each other. It was odd how the memories of us totally hating each other seemed so long ago. 

            We pulled in front of a small café that was on the corner of one street. The particular street had couples and other various people window-shopping or buying things from street vendors. It gave a slightly warm feeling to the air. We walked inside and sat down at one of the tables, examining small menus. 

            A waiter came and we gave our orders (I got a deli sandwich), then it dawned on me that Doumyouji was being very unusually quiet. 

            "Hey, Doumyouji, anything you want to share?" I asked, leaning on my elbows. 

            "I'm sorry. I just…" Doumyouji frowned a little. "I've been really stressed out lately. Classes, people, and other things…" 

            "Well, maybe you should take a little vacation! On one of the weekends you should go do something by yourself. I did that sometimes during my first semester. It might help a little." I advised. 

            "You sound like you might be worried about me." Doumyouji's face broke out into a grin. 

            "There's nothing wrong with looking out for your friends." I amended, crossing my arms. 

            "So you _are_ worried about me." Doumyouji's voice held a hint of questioning in it. My face scrunched up a little though I'm not sure why. It wasn't like there was anything _wrong_ with being worried about anyone. 

            "And if I am?" I asked raising my eyebrows in challenge. 

            "I-" Doumyouji began but was cut off by the waiter putting down our food. He didn't bother to go on though, occupying himself with his food.

            "What were you saying?" I inquired politely before taking a big bite of my sandwich.

            "Never mind." Doumyouji told me. "It's not really important. What about you? Are classes usually stressful to you?" 

            "No, not really. I mean at times, I think that they are but I've gotten use to them." I explained. "Of course I don't have to run some major corporation when I get out of college."

            "Don't remind me." Doumyouji groaned. "I have my parents always on me about that. My mom is constantly going on about how I need to make sure I don't 'shame the family.' You'd think it was a country I was taking over."

            "Well in a way, a business is like a country. You've got rules and people that you have to make sure are provided for." I compared the two. "Their pretty similar." 

            "Do we have to talk about businesses?" Doumyouji gave me a pleading look. "Why don't you tell me about your family?"

            "My mom and dad are really nice, a little eccentric at times but nice. And my brother is at his 'I will rebel over anything' stage." I explained. "That's pretty much it." 

            "They sound great." Doumyouji told me.

            "Oh well, I'm glad you think so." I said dryly. "It's not like you'll ever have to deal with them or anything." 

            "I might have to, you never know." Doumyouji said in a slightly enigmatic way. _I hate it when he says things like that! I have no clue what he means by it! _

            "Maybe." I agreed looking at him suspiciously. We finished off our food but we didn't go back to the car. We were walking along streets with all the other people, side by side. I stopped in front of a window. "Hey! Cute!" The store was decorated with chocolates of all varieties, but in the window was a large display of chocolate teddy bears. 

            "Do you want one?" Doumyouji asked me, peering into the window. 

            "You don't have to buy anything…" I trailed uneasily. I felt bad making others spend money. I mean I didn't really have a problem with Doumyouji buying dinner because it was _his_ suggestion. 

            "I want to. Come on." Doumyouji insisted, taking my hand and leading me into the shop. I looked around the large display of chocolate teddy bears. 

            "I like that one!" I exclaimed as I saw one wearing a tie. Strangely the tie looked remarkably similar to one that Doumyouji owned. It was very cute though and looked yummy with white chocolate swirled for it's little shirt. Doumyouji took it off the shelf, going over to the cash register. A few moments later I was carrying around the nice paper sack with my prized chocolate teddy bear.

            "I'm glad you like it." Doumyouji told me thoughtfully. I smiled gratefully at him.

            "Thanks Doumyouji." I felt a slightly odd warm feeling in my chest right then, though I couldn't place it decided that it was just some weird little thing. We walked by a little street vendor who was selling flowers. I didn't even realize that Doumyouji had stopped until I felt a slight yanking on my arm. I also didn't realize that Doumyouji and me were still holding hands. 

            "I'll take a dozen of those roses." Doumyouji told the man behind the display of different varieties. 

            "What are you getting flowers for?" I asked him curiously. The man was wrapping up red roses in paper. 

            "What do you think I'm getting them for?" Doumyouji made it seem like it was really obvious, I still felt a slight bewilderment until he handed me the bouquet after he paid. 

            "You didn't have to buy me flowers!" I exclaimed, already bending my head to smell them. 

            "I wanted to." Doumyouji shrugged. "Does it matter?"

            "I thought you said that a guy can't just give flowers to a girl! I thought it meant he like her." I had a teasing smile on my face. There is a bit of a triumph at the thought of being right over him. Doumyouji shrugged a little, not saying a word. 

            "Tsukushi…" Doumyouji looked a little wistful. I looked up at him. "Never mind."

            "If there's something you want to say you can say it." I prompted him. I often had to do this with Rui who was hard to get one word out of sometimes. 

            "I've been trying!" Doumyouji exclaimed in frustration. "It's hard though…"

            "What's hard?" I asked. I smelled my roses again; I liked the smell of roses a lot. 

            "Tsukushi, I…" Doumyouji trailed off once more. "I-"

            "Hey! Isn't that Doumyouji?" A girl who was walking on the street with a group of other girls spotted the two of us.

            "Yuck, he's with that one girl." Another one scrunched up their face. I rolled my eyes at them. 

            "I dare you to say hi!" Another girl told the first one. The first one's face went all red. 

            "Hi Doumyouji!" The girl waved at him. Doumyouji hunched over as if trying to hide himself behind me. Considering that he was taller than me, it was probably a failed thing from the start. 

            "Stupid freaking…" Doumyouji trailed off. We were heading towards his car.

            "What were you going to say?" I asked curiously. Doumyouji sighed loudly. 

            "Oh it wasn't important." Doumyouji looked a little defeated at that moment. I wondered what was going on with him. Maybe he would tell me in a few days or something. Maybe pushing it wasn't helping.

            "Okay." I smiled at him, hoping that was the right response. We got back into the car and took off towards home. I felt pretty nice right then, with the wind blowing the scent of roses towards my face, and my chocolate teddy bear tucked away. Doumyouji looked a little less preoccupied with his thoughts. We grinned at each other as though we both knew some great joke. It was one of those moments that you remember in your mind. Most of the car ride was in silence until we got to the house again. Doumyouji pulled the keys out of the ignition but then didn't make any moves towards getting out of the car. 

            "Tsukushi…did you have fun tonight?" Doumyouji asked me. 

            "Yeah! It was fun." I told him reassuringly. 

            "I'm glad that you did." Doumyouji started to lean towards me in the car. Or maybe that was just my imagination coming in there. "Tsukushi…" His voice sounded deeper too I decided. 

            "What?" I asked him, for what seemed like the thousandth time that night. 

            "I have something to tell you…" Doumyouji trailed off, coming seemingly closer to me. I nodded as sort of a prompting to whatever it was. 

            "Go ahead." I waited for his next words. _Finally he's going to tell me whatever it is! _

            "Makiko?" I heard Soujirou's voice and turned my head to see the couple standing not to far away from us, but they obviously hadn't noticed it.

            "Yes?" Makiko looked up at him, her face going slightly pink. 

            "Did you have a nice time?" Soujirou asked her. I thought this conversation sounded a little like the one Doumyouji and me were having but past it off as a coincident.

            "I had lots of fun with you." Makiko looked away from his face, hers going even pinker. 

            "Makiko…I really like you." Soujirou admitted to my friend. I felt like cheering for Makiko but kept quiet. 

            "I-I like you too." Makiko looked back up at him. Soujirou took a step towards her, closing the gap between the two of them. He tilted Makiko's face up towards his, kissing her softly on the lips. I burst into applause. 

            "Way to go Makiko!" I yelled from the car. Makiko and Soujirou broke their kiss, staring at me like a deer caught in the headlights. 

            "Tsukushi!" Makiko's voice started up in a whine. "Thanks a lot!" She was grinning though. 

            "What?" I asked innocently. "I was just helping the moment." 

            "Yeah, right." Soujirou gave me a semi-dangerous look. Makiko stood up on her tiptoes and pecked him on the cheek.

            "I should probably be going home…" Makiko told him. 

            "I'll walk you." Soujirou put an arm around her shoulders as they walked by us. I turned back to Doumyouji and then realized that he _had_ been about to tell me something. 

            "Oh! I'm sorry Doumyouji! What were you going to say?" I asked with big apologetic eyes. Doumyouji slumped back, leaning away from me into his seat. 

            "Nothing important." Doumyouji sighed once more. 

            "Are you sure?" I asked in concern. 

            "Yeah." Doumyouji got out of the car, before coming around, opening the door for me, and helping me out. "We should…do something like that again." 

            "Sure!" I agreed. "It was nice not having everyone tagging along telling us what a lame couple we are every five seconds." 

            "I guess that's true." Doumyouji nodded his head. "Do you like spending time with me?" I blinked a few times because the question sounded like something that had come out of almost nowhere. 

            "Why wouldn't I?" I asked him. "Of course I do you dope!" 

            "You do?" Doumyouji's face broke out into a smile. "I like to spend time with you…" We were stopped at the door. Doumyouji was looking at me intently. I saw him leaning towards me once more, a hand starting to come up out of the corner of my eye. My breath caught as our eyes locked. 

            _RED ALERT! RED ALERT! Something is going on here! Oh shut up mind! This is no time for me to be freaking out! _

            I felt his hand just starting to touch my face and then we both probably jumped five feet in the air as a bucket of cold water came splashing down on us. 

            "AHHHHHH! That's cold!" I yelled. I looked up at an open window above us where Akira and Rui were laughing at us. The look I gave them snapped them out of their laughter. In fact Akira looked near to wetting himself. 

            "I thought it was Soujirou and Makiko!" Akira defended himself immediately as Doumyouji started to shake with anger.

            "I'm going to _kill_ you two! What the hell is wrong with you?" Doumyouji shook a fist at the stunned duo. 

            "We couldn't see right! But you guys sounded like you were on your first date for crying outloud! With all that 'I like to spend time with you' crap! It was an honest mistake!" Akira looked desperate to avoid a severe beating. 

            "My roses!" I shrieked as I quickly looked down at the flowers. They didn't seem harmed at all other than being wet. "Well at least their okay…" I said only loud enough for me to here. "I'm going to help kill you two!" Doumyouji and me went bounding into the house in hot pursuit of two very unlucky individuals. 

*                                              *                                              *

            I crack myself up. Okay I have this song stuck in my head. Teresa, please explain why the Bells of Notre Dame is so freaking catchy! The fisherman fishes, the baker man bakes to the bells of Notre Dame! You know, I've never even seen that movie! Sheesh! I still love Stabbing Westward though…they are a great band…so I hope you guys liked this chapter. I did. It was fun. Not as fun as this one chapter will be…but I'm not handing out spoilers at the moment. Oh by the way Teresa, I know just how you felt all those years ago when we use to sit in your room writing. Our younger brother has decided that he also wants to write. (I'm thinking about making him write Fanfiction so I have MSTing materials on hand.) He's been working hard on a story coming in my room every five or ten minutes to ask questions like "So what do I use for people saying things again?" I ended up writing a little informative guide to help him out. His stories show that one day with enough practice he may write something good. Just like me. So I'd like to thank you for all your wonderful patience through the years. (Did I ever ask that questions ten times? Say I didn't, even if you're lying.) 

Favorite Line From This Chapter: _Oh shut up mind!_ (Teresa: What do you know self?)


	11. Okay How About Just Buying Her A Clue?

Well it's almost the day of love and I figured I'd update all my fanfics. (For full details about how Fanfiction.net screwed me plans up, check out Operation: Happy Valentine's Day.) I know that was shameless self-plugging ~_^. Love ya guys! So I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's cool.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango.

Warnings: Cussing. More slightly Kare Kano-ish attempts on Doumyouji's part…

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Eleven

            _Ice cream is good._

            This little epiphany came to me as I sat outside on a park bench, eating ice cream with all Akira, Soujirou, Doumyouji, and Rui. Now, Doumyouji had asked me alone if I wanted to go out for ice cream and all the others decided that they just had to come along. I'm not so sure Doumyouji wanted them there but he wasn't really putting up much of a fight. Every now and then he would give them annoyed looks. I really wanted to know what was up with him lately. He kept trying to tell me something and I wasn't sure it was ever going to come out. Whatever it was. 

            "Popsicles kick ass." Soujirou informed us as he turned his mouth purple on a grape Popsicle. 

            "Indeed." Akira was eating an orange one right next to him. 

            "You guys are a bunch of losers." Doumyouji told them. "Don't you have anything better to do than follow me and Tsukushi around?"

            "This is the most entertaining thing to do right now." Soujirou defended himself. "You guys are hilarious. Me and Makiko have probably gone farther then you and Tsukushi." 

            "Shut up!" Doumyouji looked about to throw his fudgesicle at Soujirou's head. "How would you know anything?"

            "I've seen you two together! Look at the way you two are sitting now!" Soujirou pointed at us. "Tsukushi is almost a foot a way from you! I swear sometimes…" Before I knew it, Doumyouji had pulled me till I was almost sitting in his lap. I went a little red in the face at the sudden closeness of our bodies. 

            "Still, you guys don't follow Rui and Shizuka around!" Doumyouji protested. 

            "Well, one, Rui is good at slipping away so no one even knows where he went and two, Shizuka and Rui actually do things." Akira ticked off the items on his free fingers. I rolled my eyes at them.

            "Soujirou, I'd think you'd be busy with your _own_ girlfriend." I said rather pointedly. 

            "She's busy today." Soujirou sulked. 

            "And the truth is out, you really just don't have anything better to do." I concluded, folding my arms.  

            "I hate you guys." Soujirou glowered. 

            "Let's go climb trees!" Akira suggested, seeming for a moment ten years old once more. "Tsukushi and Doumyouji are boring." 

            "Yes! Go!" Doumyouji looked excited that the others wanted to do something else. 

            "I'm going back to the house." Rui informed all of us. "I'm tired." With those words he walked off. I had to wonder about Rui sometimes. All he ever did was sleep all day (when he could of course) and then when he wasn't sleeping he would go to Shizuka's. Of course, it wasn't really _my _business. Akira and Soujirou dropped their now empty Popsicle sticks, scrambling over to a very large tree which people were often found sitting on. 

            "Do you want to go for a walk?" Doumyouji asked me as I finished off my ice cream. 

            "Umph omkway." I had taken a large bite of the last of my cone. It ended up with me spraying bits of it all over myself in an attempt to answer his question. __

            Coherency wasn't the goal of that sentence was it? 'Cause it might have missed… 

            "What?" Doumyouji looked the very picture of confused as I swallowed my mouthful. 

            "Okay." I answered clearly with a grin. Doumyouji looked like he had won some sort of battle. I wasn't sure what the battle was though. We were walking on the cement path in silence. I was remembering painfully that the last time I had been at a park was with Junpei. I closed my eyes, firmly pushing away from that. I wasn't going to drudge up the past at that moment. "You know, this place is pretty nice." 

            "I was just thinking that." Doumyouji gave me a definite look. I'm not sure what the look was supposed to say. I mean I felt all of a sudden that there weren't a lot of things I knew. I was missing out on something and it was important. Still, Doumyouji's eyes looked very intense as though trying to see into my mind. 

            "It's great to be outdoors when you spend all week inside." I commented trying to keep the conversation going. 

            "Yeah." Doumyouji nodded his head in agreement. "You know…"

            "What?" I asked him. 

            "I've been thinking about a lot of things lately." Doumyouji explained slowly. "See…I…" He trailed off.

            "Go on." I prompted, hoping that perhaps he might give me some insight on what it was that was causing him to be slightly moody.

            "Tsukushi, sometimes when…" Doumyouji trailed off shaking his head. He took a deep breath before starting again. "What I'm trying to say is…"

            "What is this like the lead up to you asking her to have sex?" Soujirou asked making a face at us. My eyes widened suddenly in surprise when I saw that Soujirou and Akira were up in a tree next to us. 

            "DAMMIT! SOUJIROU!" Doumyouji yelled angrily. 

            "Geez you guys scared me." I inhaled slowly. "Don't just pop up like that!"

            "We couldn't resist." Akira explained in a teasing voice. "It was just too tempting." 

            "Get a life." Doumyouji still looked ticked off. "Stop following us around!"

            "See? I told you he's trying to get some." Soujirou pointed out to Akira who nodded as if they were having a scientific debate about it. 

            "Soujirou, I swear that if you do not shut up I will hurt you." I told him. "Now why don't you and Akira go do something before Doumyouji kills you." Soujirou and Akira were identical grins before climbing out of the tree, scampering off to some destination. "Now, what were you saying before?"

            "Well…" Doumyouji trailed off in a considering tone. "I'm not sure."

            "Oh? It sounded important to me. Maybe you'll remember later." I was pretty optimistic even though I still wanted to know what was going on with the curly haired young man.

            "I'm sorry about the guys." Doumyouji apologized. "You know them." 

            "Yeah, well don't worry about it." I laughed. "They'll get wrapped up in some video game and we won't hear from them for a few weeks."

            "That's pretty safe to assume." Doumyouji laughed a little too. "Maybe I'll go out and buy them a new one just so they'll leave us alone."

            "I'm getting sick of 'Tsukushi and Doumyouji are a lame couple' jokes." I informed him. "Even if we aren't _actually_ a couple, I still don't think we're lame." 

            "I don't think we would make a lame couple at all…" Doumyouji started to get that look in his eyes again. 

            _Why does he have to say it like that? _

            "What do you mean?" I inquired. Part of me felt like this whole scenario might not ever end unless Doumyouji would just get over it and tell me what was going on. I think somewhere deep in my mind I knew what it was. That part of my mind just wasn't sending postage to the other parts however. 

            "I mean," Doumyouji paused, as he seemed to search for the right words. "I mean that…I mean if we were…I mean if I…"

            "If what?" I couldn't help asking, as Doumyouji seemed to be in a bit of a stand still at what he was trying to say. 

            "Hey you two!" Yuuki and Sakurako walked by eating ice cream. 

            "Hey you guys!" I waved back at them. "Having a nice day?"

            "Yeah." Yuuki nodded as the duo past. "You?"

            "So far so good!" I called out before we were out of talking range. I turned to Doumyouji who looked irritated beyond belief. "So-"

            "Never mind!" Doumyouji snapped, stomping a little away from me. 

            "What? It's not my fault if someone interrupts you!" I was a little indignant about the whole matter. Blaming me was like blaming a stick on the ground when you stepped on it. 

            "Well this isn't easy at all!" Doumyouji crossed his arms, still looking rather peeved. 

            "I'm sorry then." I apologized quickly. "But all the same it isn't really my fault. Why don't we just go back to the house?" 

            "Okay." Doumyouji sighed before reaching over and taking my hand into his. This was becoming a habit for him to do this. I have no clue why he did it though. 

            But truthfully, I kind of liked it.

*                                              *                                              *

            "GET OUT NOW!" I ordered, hitting Soujirou's hand with a spoon. Now some tasks are impossible. Like counting every star in the sky or all the grains of sand on the beach. But I had found the most impossible task that has ever been given to do. 

            Make cookies with four boys in the house. 

            Oh it sounds easy at first. But it isn't. For one thing, all four boys kept deciding to check up on my progress. Rui had come in and tasted the cookie dough when it was only at its butter-sugar stage. I kicked him out of the kitchen so that I could finish in peace. Or so I thought. Then Doumyouji wandered in innocently enough, inquired as to what I was making, then going to sample the dough. I hit him over the hand with my wooden spoon and pointed at the door. Another bites the dust. 

            Rui and Doumyouji were pretty easy to keep out but Soujirou and Akira were a whole other story. They kept trying to do some sort of weird guerrilla warfare tactics on me. They would try to lure me out of the kitchen or they would try to sneak in very quietly. I had probably run them out of the kitchen four times already and was very near my fifth. It was getting ugly. 

            "I mean it this time! The next person who comes in here is not getting _any_!" I had my hands on my hips, ready for the next person who thought they needed to test the dough. This announcement made both Akira and Soujirou fall over laughing. 

            "Hey did you hear that one Doumyouji?" Soujirou called up at the curly haired boy. "You better stay out of the kitchen!" My face went a little red as I turned to go back into the kitchen so that I wouldn't have to dignify that with an answer.

            "Oh like you've gotten anywhere with _your_ girlfriend." Doumyouji retorted from somewhere upstairs. I was ready to put the chocolate chips in but feared that if I were to open the bag, people might start trying to sample out of it. I carefully opened it, making as little noise as possible. I was about to dump the bag into my dough when someone came into the kitchen from behind me, grabbing a handful of chocolate chips. I whirled around with my weapon of choice (a wooden spoon) to hurt whoever the foolish individual was that decided to into my kitchen.

            "I'm going to-" I cut myself as I turned to see Doumyouji eating the chocolate chips rather calmly. My eyebrow twitched, this was going to be a long day. "DOUMYOUJI!" 

            "What?" Doumyouji asked as if he had no idea what he had done.

            "Those are for the cookies!" I brandished the spoon threateningly. "Which you don't get any." 

            "Why not?" Doumyouji questioned in a demanding voice. He grabbed the spoon, which stopped me from waving it in the air threateningly.

            "Because you people can't stop bothering me." I was surprised by Doumyouji taking the spoon from me.

            "Well if I can't have any cookies, can I lick the spoon?" Doumyouji already had it, making it seem a bit rhetorical. He put it in his mouth. 

            "Hey! I needed that still!" I protested even though know it wouldn't make a difference. "That's the last time I try to do something nice for you guys!" Doumyouji took a half of a step towards me and I backed into the counter behind me. Doumyouji was practically standing over me. 

            "This is really good." Doumyouji told me. He put the spoon between us. "Want some?" 

            "Um…" Okay this may sound weird, but it seemed like there was more then just this cookie dough on a spoon involved in the question. But as I could not resist something that it was right in front of my face, I took the spoon from him, licking off part of the dough with my tongue. I watched the look on his face change a little. It was hard to describe but it reminded me of the look he had given me that night when we were drinking that soda. Kind of hungry. "Doumyouji…" I have no clue what I started to say even. 

            "Tsukushi…" Doumyouji rested his hands on top of mine, eating more of the dough off the spoon. Heat was probably radiating off my face though. Thoughts, very odd ones were popping in and out of my head.

            _Doesn't seem a little…ahem… Tsukushi, get a grip! Even though Doumyouji's eyes are looking at you like that, it doesn't mean anything! Of course not! Not a thing! Nothing to worry about! Your imagining things…_

            "Heh, don't think your getting any cookies." I pulled the spoon away from him. "I already said that anyone else that came into the kitchen wasn't getting any, so there." I folded my arms, hoping to look stern. 

            "I don't get any?" Doumyouji was the nearest I had ever seen to a pout. I could have died laughing if I hadn't been trying to keep a straight face. 

            "None." I shook my head. 

            "Not one?" Doumyouji's voice went a little higher in a whine. I caved though. 

            "Well, I guess you can have some if you leave the kitchen in three seconds…" I told him. Doumyouji smiled triumphantly. 

            "I knew you couldn't resist me." Doumyouji teased. 

            "Three…two…" I went on counting, trying to ignore Doumyouji who scampered out of the kitchen. I shook my head as I started to get out new spoons. Sometimes I had to wonder. Especially about how it was I was going to get all the freshly baked cookies hidden away from the boys. They'd be gone in a half an hour if they had _their_ way. 

*                                              *                                              *

            Well I guess that's the end of that chapter. I've been updating like crazy and I had to finish that story so fast…gah, I'm always so rushed about stuff. Please R&R!!! I will love you and wish you lots of candy. (Let's cross our fingers and hope Jade gets to mooch off her friend's candy tomorrow as she'll undoubtedly get none of her own!)  

Favorite Line From This Chapter: "Want some?" (And I said give it to me baby! Give it to me baby! I want me some of that!) 


	12. Grocery Shopping With The F4

Well I was writing some of LOA but I figured Aeris could wait. Tuxedo Mask! (There was no point to that other than to pay homage to my plushie.) Well after so many great reviews about the ending of B.B.T.H.S. I was feeling pretty happy about that whole thing. Gah, I need to stop thinking of Hana Yori Dango AU's. Far too many ideas. 

Emchan: Oh yeah I know. See I always think of one and then write the other. I'm brilliant like that sometimes. 

Curdled milk: I was dying of laughter from your review! I too have a dollar, we could totally buy a clue!

Bodha: No she wasn't raped. Sorry if there was confusion about that. Which often happens as I suck at writing and therefore probably confuse my readers. Also I didn't really think I gave the impression that she was completely over it and tried to think how she handled herself right after the incident in episode nine. But I'm sure that didn't come out right either. Gomen ne!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango. (Um, I think I might explode.)

Warnings: If I puke on my laptop, I'll probably be in a lot of trouble. Okay so there's cussing. Erm…and pinball…

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Twelve 

_"The search for love and happiness,_

_Turns out to be a game of chess,_

_You can't move or you'll break the board,_

_And lie in pieces on the floor." _

_            -I'm Like Yeah And She's All No, Mr. T Expierence_

            I should have known. I mean I came out of the last class of the day to find the boys in the back of Doumyouji's car. I suspected something was going on. Particularly because they were all asking Doumyouji something while he got more and more annoyed. So I should have known that _something_ was going on. 

            Of course I just ignorantly walked up to the car. I didn't suspect a thing but I soon began to.

            "Hi." Doumyouji greeted me. 

            "So is it a home theater?" Soujirou inquired.

            "Huh?" I was pretty confused. Of course I knew that there was probably something that lead up to Soujirou's question. 

            "No it's not a home theater! Just wait till we get home!" Doumyouji snapped at them. 

            "What's going on?" I asked.

            "Oh well Doumyouji got a present from his dad!" Akira explained. "He won't tell us what it is and he won't let us see it unless we were all there." 

            "Is it Doumyouji's birthday?" I questioned. I had no clue when Doumyouji was born. That was a simple fact. 

            "Not for another three weeks." Soujirou told me. "This was an early present though." 

            "Which means it's something awesome!" Akira exclaimed. "He got the car last year!"

            "Maybe it's another car and it means we can drive this one!" Soujirou suggested.

            "Then why is it in the living room?" Rui asked in a bored tone. "Maybe it's a new couch."

            "Not big enough." Soujirou batted the suggestion down. "Plus the only one of us who would want a new couch is you." I had to laugh. Soujirou had a point.

            "You guys are annoying." Doumyouji muttered as he raced along the road at one of the maniac speeds that he was famous for. 

            "They just want to know what it is." I told him. Doumyouji gave me a slightly sideways look that was a little confusing. Then he turned his attention back to the road so that he could park. Akira and Soujirou jumped out of the car, standing on the backseats. After several death threats from Doumyouji, we finally got inside the house, racing to the living room. In the middle of the floor was something, covered by a sheet. I couldn't make the shape out very well though. It did remind me of something. Though what it was, I couldn't put my finger on. 

            "Now can we see?" Akira asked. "We've been waiting forever!" Doumyouji put one hand on the sheet and in a grand sweeping motion, pulled the sheet off. 

            It was a pinball machine. 

            I could already feel the trouble brewing behind this machine. I mean what could be worse than a house full of boys and a pinball machine? Arguments were already popping up in my head. But I was a bit excited to. How many people get to have their own private pinball machine?

            "WOAH!" Soujirou and Akira exclaimed at exactly the same time before seeming to pounce on the thing. 

            "I'm going to have the top score on it!" Akira announced already searching for where it should be plugged in.

            "I'm the pinball master." Soujirou informed him. "Good luck keeping the high score." 

            "This is great." I told Doumyouji. "Your father is really nice to get you such a good present." 

            "You should meet him." Doumyouji's face had broken out into a smile. Soujirou and Akira were already plugging the whole thing in. 

            "You know…" Akira had a sly look on his face. "Your birthday _is_ in three weeks."

            "So?" Doumyouji raised in eyebrow.

            "And we just got a pinball machine…" Akira trailed off, obviously trying to hint something that the rest of us just weren't getting. 

            "I see where Akira is going!" Soujirou straightened up from plugging the last thing in. "Perhaps we should have a birthday…_party_." Him and Akira slapped each other high fives as if they were both incredibly brilliant. 

            "No." Doumyouji answered promptly. I felt torn. A party would be fun but on the other hand, the last party I went to didn't end very well.

            "We have to uphold our F4 reputation." Akira explained while Soujirou nodded in agreement next to him. 

            "I'm not having a party." Doumyouji crossed his arms. 

            "Why not?" Soujirou asked with big pleading eyes. I had to smother a giggle in my hand. 

            "Well…because…" Doumyouji looked at me. "Tsukushi…" I swallowed. After all, I should be past the thing right? No reason to spoil everyone else's fun. Although Makiko was right about me always suppressing things like this. I guess old habits die hard.

            I lifted my face to everyone. "I don't care. It isn't a big deal to me. A party sounds fun." I plastered a big smile on my face to go along with my statement.

            _Isn't this a psychological disorder? Oh well. _

            "Are you sure?" Doumyouji looked at me, his voice hinting at disbelief.

            "Of course I'm sure." I didn't quite meet his eyes when I said that. For one I was already feeling a little guilty because I was lying a little. And I had made a promise to Doumyouji about lying. 

            "See? Tsukushi said we could!" Akira jumped immediately on my approval. Doumyouji was still looking at me when he answered.

            "Fine, if we must have a party." Doumyouji rolled his eyes at them. "But I don't want anyone trying to get in here that shouldn't be in here." I already knew who he was talking about and doubted that Junpei was stupid enough to try to pull anything. 

            "YES!" Soujirou cheered. "Now to play pinball." 

            "No way! I'm first!" Akira argued. The two turned around to see Rui playing pinball. Much like miniature golf, Rui didn't even look like he was paying attention as his points rose higher and higher at a rather alarming rate. I decided I probably would not be getting a turn anytime soon and went upstairs to do homework. Maybe after that I could try to wheedle my way into the line. 

            I was half way done with it when Doumyouji came into my room without knocking. I threw my pencil at him. 

            "Hey! Knock first!" I told him. Doumyouji looked rather irked at my pencil but gave it back to me. 

            "You're just doing your homework." Doumyouji pointed out. "Now about this party-"

            "What about it?" I pretended not to have any clue what he was going to say. "Like I said, it's no big deal." 

            "I thought you said you weren't going to lie." Doumyouji reminded me. I flinched a little, knowing he had pulled his trump card out on me. 

            "Well I just don't want to ruin for everyone else." I explained. 

            "What do you think is more important to me? You or everybody else?" Doumyouji asked me. I felt my heart began to thump. 

            _STUPID HEART! STOP DOING THAT!!!_

            "I…" I trailed off as I realized I had no clue how to respond to that question. It just wasn't fair the way he could pull things like that out. 

            "Is it really that hard to figure out?" Doumyouji's intense gaze had me in a bit of a daze. All I could do was look up at those dark eyes and feel like they were swallowing me up.

            "No…I mean…yes…I mean…" I stammered. _What an intelligent answer, Tsukushi._

            "If you don't want to have this party, then I'll call the whole thing off." Doumyouji told me. "I want you to be…"

            "Really, it's okay. If you're there, I should be fine right?" I smiled a little. "When you're around, I don't think anyone could hurt me." Doumyouji looked frozen, staring at me with that look that seemed as though he couldn't believe what I had just said. What had I just said? 

            "Do you…really think that?" Doumyouji's mouth was curved in the faintest trace of a smile. He leaned towards me, till his face was only a few inches away from mine. I could feel my cheeks began to flush. 

            "Doumyouji…" I couldn't really think properly right then. 

            "Akira's hogging the machine!" Soujirou's voice yelled up the stairs at us. Doumyouji's teeth clenched in irritation. 

            "I swear they're all five years old!" I shook my head. "You should probably go back down and monitor them though." 

            "Yeah…I guess…" Doumyouji looked really disappointed. I wasn't really sure why though. "Well I guess I'll go then." Doumyouji gave me a look right before he left that confused me. Why did it confuse me? Well this may sound really weird but the look was…hopeful.

*                                              *                                              *

            "Grocery shopping is hard enough without everyone tagging along!" I put my hands on my hips. Rui was pushing the cart along as that seemed like his job. I had a large list and was trying to shop properly but Soujirou, Akira, and Doumyouji seemed to be trying to prevent that. First of all, I finally got Soujirou and Akira to stop racing carts along the store. Then all three of them liked to just throw things into the cart. 

            "I'm not doing anything." Rui defended himself as he pushed the cart obediently. 

            "I know you aren't but the next thing that finds its way magically into the cart is going to be thrown at someone's head!" I threatened. Akira, Soujirou, and Doumyouji all looked sheepish. It was a few more days till our party and we were shopping for things we would need. Plus regular groceries. It was a total madhouse. 

            "Aren't we done yet?" Akira asked, looking mildly bored.

            "No we aren't!" I snapped at him. "Now where the heck is the cereal?" 

            "In the next aisle." Rui supplied. 

            "I want Lucky Charms!" Soujirou insisted right away. 

            "GAHHH! I'm never going grocery shopping again!" I wanted to pull the hair right out of my head. "Just pick out your damn cereal so I don't have to hear about it." 

            "Tsukushi is scary." Akira whispered to Soujirou, which of course I heard because those two seemed to have some sort of odd speech problem where they couldn't control the volume of their voice.

            "Shut up you two!" Doumyouji jumped to my immediate defense. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. I smiled slightly as I remembered a time not so long ago that we were snapping at each other more than anyone else. I managed finish off the rest of the shopping in peace before we loaded all the bags into the trunk of Doumyouji's car. 

            We arrived at the house with Soujirou and Akira in a full-blown debate about whether or not butterscotch pudding was better than chocolate pudding. It was getting pretty stupid at one point until Rui woke up enough to point out that some people will allergic to chocolate and lots of people just didn't like butterscotch. This of course just made it worse on the rest of us. I unloaded groceries before debating on whether or not I should take an aspirin to get rid of the headache that had built up. 

            "How come we bought all this fruit juice?" I asked as Soujirou and Akira sat there stocking up all the cans of juice concentrate in the freezer. 

            "There has to be punch at the party." Soujirou explained knowledgably. "We're going to make it ourselves." 

            "That should be interesting." I replied wryly before going upstairs. Maybe I would take a nap or something. I was tired. But before I did, I looked up at the vase containing the roses that Doumyouji had bought me a while ago. They were dying. I took them out of the vase and then decided against throwing them out. I bunched them together and tied all the stems together with a ribbon to make the whole thing look nice. Then I left it on the window ceil to dry out in the sun. This struck me as a little funny. Every time someone gave me flowers, I threw them out as soon as they died. But I had kept Doumyouji's flowers.

            _Well they're different. _

            The funny thing was, I don't know why they were different then other flowers. They just were.

*                                              *                                              *

            Sorry this chapter is kind of short! But sometimes it means that the next chapter is going to be really long or something. I'm also sorry that not a lot happened in this particular chapter. I swear things are going to start happening very soon! Please review. 

Favorite Line From This Chapter: _STUPID HEART! STOP DOING THAT!!!_ (Do I even have to comment?) 


	13. So, How About That Party?

I'm tired. I still want cheddar popcorn dammit! Instead I shall vent frustration by bringing the next installment of this story. Also I've been convinced to go to the Literary Criticism thingy. 

I hereby dedicate this chapter to Curdled Milk who has probably just realized what this chapter is about and skipped reading the rest of the sentence.

Sushifishie: Guilty as charged.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango. 

Warnings: (falls out of her chair laughing) Oh I'm sorry. What to say…without giving too much about the chapter away…cussing and some sexual content (nothing really bad.) 

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Thirteen

            I straightened my outfit a little as we started to let partygoers into the house. I had made the place pretty nice even though I knew I was just going to have to clean it when it was all over with. Akira and Soujirou were slapping high fives with just about everybody that came in. I think they knew everybody. Which was odd considering how much of their day consisted of playing video games. In fact most of the time they were at the house.

            Most people were hanging out as music came from one of the large stereos. I felt like kind of melting into the background because I didn't really know anyone. I saw Sakurako trying to drape herself all over Doumyouji and turned away from that. It was just a little annoying to watch, that was all. 

            "Hey Tsukushi." Shigeru greeted me. "Nice party." 

            "Thanks." I replied. "Where's Tsubaki?" I couldn't see the pretty dark haired girl anywhere. 

            "Dunno. Maybe Akira found her." Shigeru grinned as if she knew some secret. "But of course I could be wrong." 

            "Shigeru! Tsukushi!" Tsubaki ran up with a cup of punch in her hand. I had yet to try any of the punch, as I was a little afraid of anything that Soujirou and Akira had made. They're not exactly the greatest chefs alive. I won't even get into the time they decided to make pancakes. It was messy.

            "Hi Tsubaki." I greeted her. "How have you been?" 

            "I've been fine. Looks like Sakurako could use a little reminding about who is whose girlfriend." Tsubaki nudged me with her elbow. I sighed slightly. I didn't really want to approach the situation but knew I should try.

            "Tsukushi, do you want some punch?" Soujirou handed me a cup even though he was rolling a video camera at the same time. I took the cup and took a drink. There was something about the taste that I wasn't sure about. 

            "This tastes kind of funny." I complained. 

            "Hey! You know people just keep complaining about this punch! It took me and Akira lots of work and no one appreciates it!" Soujirou complained. "But while I'm here, how's the party so far? Just for the tape you know?"

            "It's cool." I decided I should just drink one cup to be polite. After a little bit, the punch did not taste quite so bad though. 

            "This punch isn't too bad." Shigeru gulped down a whole cup. "Though it is hot in here isn't it?"

            "Yeah, could there be anymore people?" Tsubaki gestured towards the myriads of people all over the place. Most moving to the music. I was tapping my foot to the beat.

            "Trust your little brother not to limit down the number of people." Shigeru rolled her eyes. I finished off my punch; it wasn't so bad at all. In fact, I wanted more. Partly because it was so hot in here. 

            "I'm going to go talk to Doumyouji." I told them both before making my way over to the place where Doumyouji was. Doumyouji was holding a cup for punch too. Sakurako saw me and began to edge away uneasily. 

            "Hey Tsukushi. This punch sucks." Doumyouji told me. 

            "I doesn't taste that bad to me." I shrugged. It had sucked at first. Maybe you just had to get use to the flavor. "Drink all of it. I thought it wasn't good either until I finished a whole cup off." 

            "Really?" Doumyouji asked before drinking the whole cup down really fast. 

            "Soujirou!" I waved him down. He came up with his video camera permanently attached to his face. "I want more punch!" 

            "Oh go ask Akira, he's serving right now." Soujirou gestured towards the kitchen. I had to go and get in line. (Doumyouji had been coming with me but a plethora of people separated us in the crush.) 

            The line was really long. It seemed as though Akira and Soujirou's punch was a hit. I couldn't figure out why though. It wasn't that good. 

            "Back for more Tsukushi?" Akira asked me. I nodded holding up my cup. I started to drink it again and thought that my punch was getting better. Maybe if you drank lots and lots of it, it started to taste good. 

            "Hey Tsukushi…" Shigeru's grin seemed a little lopsided. "I can't stop drinking this stuff. This is like my fourth cup." 

            "I'll stop soon, enough punch will probably make me throw up." I told her. "No big deal. It's just hot in here though." 

            "No doubt about that." Shigeru murmured. 

            "I feel a little dizzy." Yuuki popped up next to me. "I'm going to need to sit down for awhile." 

            "Here let me keep you company." I sat down next to her. "I lost Doumyouji in the crowd I think."

            "He's bound to turn up though." Yuuki told me. "Just you wait." She sipped her punch. 

            "You know what? I'm starting to feel a little dizzy too." I shook my head a little. "Maybe it's this heat." 

*                                                          *                                                          *

            I'm not sure what time it was. It could have been anywhere between 8:00 P.M. to 4:00 A.M. The party was still in full swing. I felt a little weird though. Of course I wasn't sure why. I was dizzy and I kept falling over a lot. Everyone was dancing weird as if they were just a little bit off of the music. 

            It was a rather funny spectacle. I took a sip from my punch. I stared at my cup and tried to recall just how many I had had that night but I couldn't really remember. That was odd too. 

            _This is weird…_

            I bobbed my head to the beat of the music. Someone had taken over the stereo system as the official DJ and seemed to have a thing for techno music. Which for some reason struck me as horrendously funny. I was sitting there giggling a lot while Soujirou came up to me, still with his video camera. 

            "Hey Tsukushi, how are we feeling tonight?" Soujirou asked me. 

            "…I am fine…" My voice sounded strange as if it weren't really mine. 

            "How much punch do you think you've had?" Soujirou was grinning from behind the camera. 

            "Two." I started giggling again. I had no clue what was so funny. It just was. Soujirou shook his head as he walked away from me. 

            I watched various people around the crowd do things. Tsubaki and Shigeru ran straight into each other, knocking the other to the floor. They got back up laughing at the whole thing. I saw Sakurako sitting in a corner by herself looking rather depressed as she sipped her punch. In fact I was about to join her when I saw Kazuya go and sit down next to her. 

            I was really just scanning the crowd though. I was looking for someone though I couldn't think of who it was. That's when a pair of arms went over my own from behind. 

            "Doumyouji…" I giggled a little more. Maybe they had added a bunch of sugar to the punch. 

            "Guess who." Doumyouji said. This made me laugh a little more.

            "I already did!" I insisted still feeling that odd sense that I was somewhat off. I wasn't reacting like I normally would. It was if someone else had control of my brain.

            "Oh yeah." Doumyouji slurred slightly. "Let's go dance." He pointed with one hand to a group of people who were really cutting loose to the music.

            "I suck at dancing…" I whined feeling really dizzy when he pulled me off my stool. "Woah…"

            "I want to dance." Doumyouji insisted. "I want to dance with you." 

            "I want to dance with you too." The words just seemed to be coming out of my mouth and the odd thing was, I wasn't stammering or blushing at all. My body didn't seem to car nor did my mind. 

            We walked in among the dancers as the beat started to get to my head. I started to just sort of move my body along with Doumyouji's. I was kind of losing myself in the moment. The music was so loud nearer to the speakers that I couldn't really hear anything besides the thumping beat. I seemed to have lost any inhibitions by that time. I was dancing against Doumyouji so closely that even I was surprised. Our hips were grinding together in some sort of unspoken urgency. I felt dizzy still. Then a thought came to me.

            _I'm not drunk, am I? _

            There was no way I could possibly be drunk. All I had to drink was punch. I had never had one sip of alcohol in all nineteen years of my life. But then again, the way I was behaving told me I was drunk. I couldn't really think straight which wasn't really helping. I was sort of just doing everything on autopilot. 

            _Oh…I don't feel so good…_

            "Doumyouji…" I whimpered. Doumyouji made a puzzled face at me because he couldn't hear me at all. Even in my stupor I realized that. I pulled him out of the crowd, away from the music. "I don't…feel that good." My speech was really slurred. 

            "Neither do me." Doumyouji agreed causing me to giggle a little. 

            "Your drunk!" I exclaimed gleefully. 

            "Could be…" Doumyouji shrugged. "At New Year's they got me drunk." 

            "I'm going to throw up." I informed him. He took me by the hand and we started to go upstairs. 

            "Me too." Doumyouji slurred impressively as we tripped on almost every step on the way up the stairs. 

            "Look…" I pointed over the banister at everyone. I saw now that most of us were drunk. Shigeru had started a conga line that was way out of beat with the music playing and kept falling in on it's self like dominoes. Doumyouji started to laugh really hard before went on because I was sure by now that I was going to puke any moment. For some reason we decided to use Doumyouji's bathroom. I stumbled in there first, shutting the door.

            "Hey! I get to go first!" Doumyouji protested. I don't hear him that well because I did in fact start throwing up. When I finished, I wiped my mouth with a towel then flushed the toilet. 

            "I beat…you…" I managed to say as I stepped out the door. I knocked right into Doumyouji and would have fallen over if he hadn't put his arms around my waist to keep me from falling. 

            "I don't feel that sick…" Doumyouji told me. 

            "I bet my breath smells like puke." I giggled. Doumyouji leaned his head down, kissing me for a few moments.

            "Doesn't taste like puke." Doumyouji had a slightly seductive light in his eyes. For some reason I thought the whole thing was a challenge. Well, I would show Doumyouji. I kissed him. When I broke away, I was smiling like a triumphant idiot.

            "Ha! I win!" I told him. 

            "Not uh!" Doumyouji dove in for another kiss. It seemed to last longer then the first two did. 

            "Oh yeah?" I raised an eyebrow before kissing him again. Doumyouji sort of walked backwards until we both tripped and fell on his bed. 

            "Tsukushi?" Doumyouji was covering my throat in kisses. 

            "Mmm?" I felt a little flushed. 

            "I'm going to win." Doumyouji told me. I was not going to let this happen and before I really knew it, we were kissing each other frantically, pulling the other's clothes off. I really couldn't decide who had won or why. Maybe Doumyouji knew. 

*                                              *                                              *

            How do you like those apples? I had a bit of a wrestling match with my grammar check on some of my drunken sentences. I know, I really need to pay homage here to Teresa, the Queen of Drunken Sex. (That's just one of the best ways to get it done!) Never fear! Things happen in the next chapter! (As opposed to other chapters?) I must say though, I'm pretty proud of my chapter. I've never been drunk so it was a little hard to write it but then I would just think back to my mom's last wedding in which there was drunken dancing! Plus after reading many a drunken scene from Teresa. (i.e. We are attractive young people with lots to offer but does anyone want us?) So thank you Teresa for showing us all how it is done.

Favorite Line From This Chapter: "Ha! I win!" (Sign me up for that game anytime with Doumyouji!)


	14. Bartending Made Easy By Soujirou and Aki...

Okay! I'm back! So let's just sit down like good little authors and write chapter fourteen okay? In this town we call home, everybody hail to the pumpkin song! I've been reading manga translations for HYD and I thought of like a billion more stories to write so yeah, looks like I'm never going to stop writing stories for this section just because it's so much fun!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango.

Warnings: Lights! Camera! Action! (You'll see.) Teresa, another challenge well met! You'll know when you see it as I don't think you've ever fully forgotten about it.

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Fourteen 

            I groaned as I woke up. My head was throbbing painfully. I needed about a whole bottle of aspirin. My body was sore too. It hurt slightly when I moved my legs. That's when I began to notice something odd about where I was. For one I could not remember going to bed. Actually now that I thought about it, I couldn't remember the party all that well. In my mind this was a small detail compared to other observations. 

            I was completely naked. 

            I realized this one and my eyelids flew open immediately. They widened to the size of dinner plates when I saw that I was sleeping right next to someone. They were snoring away as they probably had no grasp on the situation. 

            It was a very naked Doumyouji. My face went bright red as I realized one of his arms was draped across me. I could only guess as to why I was naked in the same bed as Doumyouji who was also naked. My clothes seemed to be all over the room as if they were thrown. So were Doumyouji's. 

            I decided to get out of bed very quietly. Maybe I could keep this a secret somehow. I put on my clothes quickly and silently as I could. My head was still throbbing though. I needed some aspirin. I walked out of the room, taking one last look at Doumyouji before leaving. Thoughts began to spring up in my head. Each thought was worse and worse. 

            _What if Doumyouji…took advantage of me?_

            I shook my head. There was no way that was possible but yet in my mind I still suspected it. That was it. No more parties for me. I'd become a recluse and live out my days studying in my room. It would work. I had to go downstairs to get the medicine but Soujirou and Akira stopped me.

            They were settling down to watch a movie. I had no idea what it was until Soujirou spoke.

            "Hey Tsukushi!" Soujirou held up a bottle aspirin and shook the bottle. "You looking for these?"

            "How did you know?" I asked irritably. 

            "You've should have seen yourself last night. Of course now you can!" Akira gestured towards the TV as he pressed the play button on the VCR. 

            "We made a tape!" Soujirou announced with a grin. "You have to watch it!" The living room was a mess but deciding not to worry about that right then, I plopped down on the couch and took the aspirin. I did remember Soujirou with a video camera but it was vague and felt long ago. 

            "Shhhh! It's starting!" Akira hushed us up. The camera seemed to suddenly turn on. 

            "It's working." Soujirou's voice said as the camera looked up at Akira who was looking at the fruit juice concentrate and frowning.

            "I'm not sure we used enough water." Akira shook his head. He took a spoonful and tasted it. "No one will drink it."

            "It would be a shame after all this hard work." Soujirou's voice commented. "Maybe we could add to it…"

            "Like what?" Akira asked the camera. 

            "Like maybe…" Soujirou's camera turned away and he opened a cupboard and started to rummage around. He seemed to find what he was looking for. "Like this!" He threw a bottle at Akira who caught it. I gasped as I realized it was a liquor bottle of some sort. 

            "Where did you get this?" Akira asked him, not looking very surprised. 

            "The usual." Soujirou answered. Akira nodded as if he knew exactly what Soujirou was talking about.

            "Yeah a few sips of this and everyone will think our punch is awesome." Akira joked before opening the bottle. "How much do I pour in?" 

            "I dunno." Soujirou replied shrugging a little so the camera moved slightly. "Just pour the whole thing in." 

            "Um okay." Akira began to pour the liquor. "Hey you know Doumyouji's going to be pissed."

            "Well how will he know it was us?" Soujirou asked with a superior tone. 

            "You're filming it all." Akira said pointedly. "I think we're all bound to watch this tape and then everyone will know."

            "Oh well. You never know, they could end up thanking us." Soujirou remarked before the camera seemed to turn off for a little bit.

            "I am going to kill you guys!" I started angrily. "You guys put alcohol in the punch?" 

            "We thought it would be funny." Soujirou defended himself. "Why are you so upset?" I opened my mouth to tell them what had happened when I realized that I couldn't because they didn't really know what was going on. I wanted to just 

hit my head against a wall a few times. 

            We watched more of the tape and it was sort of monotone at first. In fact, Soujirou and Akira started to fast-forward to the "good part." The camera focused on Tsubaki and Shigeru who were giggling uncontrollably. 

            "Are you two drunk?" Soujirou asked the two of them.

            "Shigeru is so drunk." Tsubaki began, slurring slightly. "I've only had a little though." 

            "Oh really?" Soujirou asked from behind the camera. 

            "Yep!" Tsubaki giggled so hard that she knocked over her cup of punch. "Oh…whoops!" This caused more laughter from the completely inebriated duo. 

            "Tsubaki's drunk! Tsubaki's drunk!" Shigeru sang in some sort of weird melody. I had to admit, it was kind of funny. Well it would have been more than that if I still wasn't inches away from strangling Akira and Soujirou. 

            "Who's drunk?" Akira asked as he popped up on camera. Tsubaki giggled some more. 

            "Shigeru." Tsubaki answered promptly. 

            "No, Tsubaki is the drunk." Shigeru fell out of her chair. Tsubaki started to get up to help her friend but fell backwards into Akira. 

            "Akira…" Tsubaki turned and put her arms around his neck. "You are pretty sexy tonight." Akira's eyes went round. 

            "Go Akira." Soujirou cheered for his friend. 

            "Kiss me pretty boy!" Tsubaki practically tackled him; they both fell over onto the floor. 

            "Ahhh! Tsubaki! Calm down!" Akira told her. "Your brother would kill me…"

            "Tsukasa's not in charge of me." Tsubaki informed him before covering his mouth with her own. 

            "Tsubaki, you are drunk." Akira began, pushing her away slightly. "I really don't mind but I…" 

            "Shigeru!" Tsubaki seemed to lose interest in the longhaired boy. Shigeru was running around wildly through the crowd. "Wait up!" Funny how Akira had morals for girls but none whatsoever for not telling anyone about the alcohol in the punch. 

            "Man, that was great!" Soujirou laughed. "The look on your face when Tsubaki tackled you!"

            "Shut up!" Akira crossed his arms as they turned the attention back to the TV screen. 

            "Sou-jir-ou!" A girl's voice sang out. Makiko popped up. It was pretty obvious from the way that Makiko kept almost falling over that she was probably drunk. She bumped her head on his camera though. 

            "Makiko, do you need to go home?" Soujirou asked her seriously. 

            "No, I'm fine." Makiko told him before she finally tripped over her own feet. Soujirou helped her up. 

            "Come on, let's go." Soujirou told her setting down the camera. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

            "Your so nice." Makiko giggled as the camera was shut off. I was glad that Makiko had gotten home with no damage done. The camera came back on though. 

            "Did you get Makiko home?" Akira appeared on camera. 

            "Yep." Soujirou answered. "She was really drunk."

            "Speaking of which…" Akira gestured off camera. "Check out Shizuka over there." Shizuka was sitting on a couch looking very prim and proper. 

            "Hey Shizuka! How many have you had?" Soujirou asked her, bringing the camera over. Shizuka smiled a huge smile at the camera.

            "Not any!" Shizuka exclaimed. "May…be…one." It seemed to take a lot of effort to get that last word out. Then she fell over a little. 

            "I'm tired." Rui seemed to fall on top of her. This caused Shizuka to laugh a little. 

            "You are…dwunk." Shizuka didn't seem able to say that last word right. Not that she didn't try. "Dwunk…dunk…dwunk…"

            "Your drunk too." Rui informed her. 

            "As long as we're both in the same boat." Shizuka giggled a little before putting her arms around him. 

            "Let's go to bed." Rui suggested in a rather blunt way. 

            "Oh let's!" Shizuka agreed before Rui picked her up and off they went. 

            "You know," A voice made us all look up from the TV. Rui was standing there without a shirt on. "We didn't end up doing anything. We fell asleep as soon as we found my room."

            "Is Shizuka still sleeping or something?" Akira asked him. 

            "Yeah." Rui sat down next to me on the couch. Then someone else came down the stairs. As soon as I caught sight of them I turned towards the TV, determined not to look away in the slightest.

            "Where's the aspirin?" Doumyouji asked. "You guys got me drunk AGAIN!" 

            "Hey, it was funny!" Soujirou protested. "Besides nothing bad happened to you right?"

            "Well…" Doumyouji paused and I knew he was probably wondering how he woken up naked. "I'm not too sure about that." 

            "Are you okay?" Soujirou's voice from the tape brought us back to the TV. Doumyouji sat down on the other side of me on the couch. I did not look at him at all. I studied the screen. Sakurako looked miserable as she sipped punch and Kazuya was sitting next to her. 

            "It's all my fault!" Sakurako wailed. "She'll never forgive me if I told her!" 

            "Sakurako…" Kazuya patted her hand. "If you'll just tell me what's wrong, maybe I can help." Sakurako threw her arms around him and began sobbing into his shoulder. 

            "It's all my fault…" Sakurako sobbed. Soujirou turned the camera away muttering to himself.

            "I wonder what's wrong with her?" Soujirou asked himself.

            "Hey, yeah, what was wrong with Sakurako?" Akira asked us all. 

            "I don't know." I answered truthfully. "She seemed kind of out of it lately. I didn't realize her and Kazuya were such good friends." The others shrugged; well I don't know if Doumyouji shrugged because I was not even daring to look at him. Then the camera came to Doumyouji who was smiling with a huge grin on his face and drinking his punch. 

            "Hey Doumyouji." Soujirou greeted him. 

            "Have you seen Tsu…Tsu…?" Doumyouji seemed to be having trouble saying my name. 

            "Tsukushi?" Soujirou supplied helpfully. 

            "Yes." Doumyouji nodded his head. "That's her. Have you seen her?" 

            "Not for a little while. I'll keep my eyes open for her. But talk to the camera about her." Soujirou shouldered the camera a little. 

            "I use to hate her…but now…" Doumyouji trailed off a little. 

            "Now what?" Soujirou asked. 

            "Now I love her." Doumyouji told the camera. My eyes went round. My mind was frantically coming up with explanations for everything.

            _He was drunk! He was so drunk! He didn't know what he was saying!_

            "Oh, there's Tsukushi over there!" Soujirou's hand came on camera pointing to me bobbing my head to the music. Doumyouji hopped off the chair he was sitting and went over to me. He put his arms around me and Soujirou was too far away to hear what we were saying. I was laughing though. Then he started to pull me towards the dance floor. 

            "Dude Tsubaki keeps trying to jump me." Akira informed the camera. "I mean, I don't have any problems with it but she's completely drunk. I'd feel really bad." 

            "Not to mention Doumyouji would kill you." Soujirou added in. 

            "Oh hey!" Soujirou turned to Doumyouji who was sitting on the couch. "We need to go back so you can watch all the parts you missed!" 

            "Like the one that proves you two tricked everyone into drinking?" I asked my eyebrow twitching. 

            "Hey Tsukushi! Don't be mad!" Akira waved his hands in front of him as if to ward off my anger. I pursed my lips. 

            "Oh this part is so funny!" Soujirou exclaimed as I looked up at the screen. Soujirou was zooming his camera into the crowd of dancers. That's when I realized what he was really zooming in on. My face went bright red as I saw Doumyouji and me dancing. Well if it could be called dancing. If I had to describe to you I suppose it was sort of like humping on the dance floor. I covered my face with my hands, hoping it would all go away. 

            "Omigod…" I murmured as I sat there shaking my head. 

            "Look at the two of them go!" The Akira on camera laughed. "It seems alcohol has an interesting effect on those two." 

            "Yeah they don't act like dorks around each other." Soujirou turned the camera away from the two of us for which I felt incredibly grateful. I knew that if I looked at Doumyouji now, I'd probably die. 

            "And that's not a bad thing!" Akira exclaimed. "Hey where did the two of them go?" Soujirou whipped the camera around the room looking for the two of us. Then he spotted us tripping our way up the staircase. 

            "Hey! Their over there!" Soujirou started to come towards us with the camera, though he had to make his way past the barricade that looked like a very drunken conga line lead by Shigeru. 

            "Should we be following?" Akira asked him.

            "Um, this is for documentary purposes." Soujirou told him in an important voice. They followed us to Doumyouji's room and my stomach clenched a little, as I knew what must be coming. "Shhhh!" 

            "I bet my breath smells like puke." I heard myself saying to Doumyouji, slurring so that it was obvious that I was drunk. Doumyouji kissed me and my eyes widened once more while watching. But the me on tape didn't seem to mind that much.

            "Doesn't taste like puke." A drunk Doumyouji informed me. I couldn't believe this was happening. I kissed Doumyouji. 

            "Ha! I win!" I announced victoriously. I decided I might be able to plead insanity to this whole thing. Then there was more kissing as me and Doumyouji fell over on his bed. Then Soujirou turned the camera away and shut the door. 

            "That's enough of that!" Soujirou exclaimed. "Let's get back to the party." I stood up at this time. Everyone looked up at me. 

            "I don't…" I clenched my stomach and ran out of the room. I couldn't face anybody right then. It wouldn't take long for Doumyouji to put two and two together. At least I knew Doumyouji hadn't taken advantage of me or anything. We had both been drunk. 

            "Tsukushi!" I heard Doumyouji call after me, coming up the stairs. I quickly closed my door and slumped against it, sliding towards the floor. I was so confused and angry that I decided I better just sit this out in my room. "Tsukushi let me in." I kept silent. I didn't want to answer right then. 

            He didn't go away of course. No not Doumyouji, Mr. I-Can't-Take-A-Hint-To-Save-My-Life. 

            "Please let me in." He started to open the door but I threw my weight against it and the door closed. "I think we need to…um…talk." That was an understatement.

            "What's there to talk about?" I asked him. "We were both drunk!" There, that settled it. Now he wouldn't need to come in at all. 

            "Let me in!" Doumyouji insisted. "I'm coming in there." I felt the door move and I pushed my weight against it. This would have worked spectacularly if Doumyouji weighed less than me. But he didn't. So he opened the door and I almost got squashed between the door and the wall. Luckily I managed to squeeze out between the space. Of course now I was forced to face Doumyouji.

            I found myself frozen as I stared up at him. He had a completely unreadable expression on his face. We just stared at each other. 

            _Wow, this is going somewhere…_

            "Tsukushi, I-" Doumyouji cut himself short by swallowing. "I think that maybe we could erm, _discuss_ what happened." 

            "There's nothing to discuss!" I put my hands on my hips defensively.

            "Of course there is!" Doumyouji insisted. "We just had sex for crying out loud!" Hearing the actual action being spoken about outloud took me a little off guard. 

            "Well what are we supposed to talk about? You know it's not like we can go back and change anything! So what is so important?" I asked him.

            "You can't just pretend it didn't happen!" Doumyouji told me. 

            "Of course I can! So can you!" I replied. I was aware that this was becoming somewhat of a yelling match. 

            "Is that what you want?" Doumyouji asked me. "You want me to pretend it didn't happen?" 

            "What the hell does that mean?" I threw my hands up in frustration. "Isn't that what _you_ want?" 

            _That's it. I'll never drink ever again. _

            "Do you really think that's what I want? Don't you know?" Doumyouji questioned me as if I knew something but just wasn't giving. 

            "You're just trying to drive me insane right now! Why can't you just let it drop? You always drag things out!" I threw back at him.

            "_I_ always drag things out? Well you know what?" Doumyouji grabbed my shoulders. 

            "What?" I yelled. 

            "I'm _glad_ that we did it!" Doumyouji told me firmly. I froze in my place. 

*                                                          *                                                          *

            HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Cliffhanger!!! I bet you can't wait for chapter fifteen can you? I feel so evil. I can't even begin to explain. Oh well. I have to say though that this was a really funny chapter to write. I mean it was just fun at parts. (The last part was kind of fun too.) So what will happen in the next chapter? CAN WE HAVE A FRIGGIN CONFESSSION! Gah, sometimes it's like I'm not even writing the story. The characters are just deciding for themselves what they want to do. 

Favorite Line For This Chapter: "I use to hate her…but now…now I love her." (You have to be Teresa to understand.) 


	15. Why Can't They Just Jump Each Other? Aga...

Um, so I ate my potpie. It was tasty. Then I drank cranberry juice. As we all know, cranberry juice is the drink of choice for writing. So now I can bring you my new chapter of this Fanfiction, which was left on a cliffhanger. (Due to budget cuts…Ehehehehe!) Hope you like it!

ATTENTION To Holly Who Is A Web mistress: Hotmail is being evil and refuses to let me send you a reply back about putting up my fanfics on your site. Of course you can! I'm really honored that you want to put them up. Thanks for the compliment! It makes me feel all special! So go ahead and put my fanfics up, your totally welcome to. Well actually the readers should be thanking Hotmail for being evil because other wise I was going to put up this new chapter tomorrow…eheh.  

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango.

Warnings: Cussing and things that have pretty much been in the other chapters. (With a slight twist.) Teresa you should spot something in this chapter…Heehehehehehehe. Basically, some revelations.

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Fifteen

            Okay to say the least, I was a little shocked by Doumyouji's last comment. I mean it had come a little unexpectedly. So naturally my mind had to think of _something_ to say back. I mean, that's just the way it worked. However, my mind was having a bit of a difficult time with the task. 

            "Um…" I trailed off slowly. _Durrr…Great, my own mind is making fun of me. _"What?" I decided that it was possible (okay maybe this was just wishful thinking) that I had misheard Doumyouji. 

            "You know what I said!" Doumyouji shook me slightly. "It's what I've been trying to say all along!" 

            "What are you talking about?" I asked. Doumyouji kissed me. It was so sudden I didn't even think to push away or anything. He pulled away. 

            "I'm saying that I love you." Doumyouji told me. My mouth must have hit the floor. I was so stunned that I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to move my face again. There were three hundred other things he could have said. Never did I think he was going to say something like that. I mean come on; it was Doumyouji we were talking about. 

            _"Now I love her." _

            That could have been passed off as just alcohol talking. Now Doumyouji was sober. Nothing interfering with his thought process at all. My mind wasn't helping at all. In fact it was being just about the most useless tool I owned. 

            "D-Doumyouji…" At least I said _something_. I felt as though I was getting somewhere. 

            "I've been trying to tell you." Doumyouji explained. "But something always got in the way! Of course this wasn't quite the situation I had in mind…" 

            "I need to sit down." I said before sitting on the couch still in somewhat of a daze. "Why is everything so complicated?"

            "It doesn't have to be." Doumyouji sat down next to me. He put his hands over mine. "Think about it…" Of course I realized that there was truth to this. 

            _The real question here is…am I in love with Doumyouji? …This question is hard…_

            So if I was in love with Doumyouji than we could be the couple we had been pretending to be for a while now. If I wasn't than I would be in quit the position. Getting paid to go out with someone who wants me to go out with them. How many people can say that? No one could. That was the problem. I had no clue as to what I was supposed to do. And my mind seemed unable to decide if I was in love with Doumyouji or not. That would have been helpful. 

            "I-I don't know." I turned away from him. "I'm not sure how I feel." 

            "I don't care how long it takes you to decide." Doumyouji told me. "I just wanted to tell you…" Doumyouji got off my bed and walked over towards the door. 

            "Doumyouji," I began. "What if I-" He cut me off. 

            "Don't worry about that." Doumyouji told me. "I don't think you'll disappoint me." With that he left. I guess I sort of expected myself to have an epiphany at this point. Some magical solution was supposed to fall out of the sky. 

            I guess the sky wasn't sending mail today. But really, wasn't the situation a huge mess? Now I was really stuck plus I was still pissed off that I had sex with Doumyouji even if we were both drunk. Oh sure, why be mad you say? Because dammit, I'm a woman and I'm allowed to get mad about these sort of things. But right now, I had a score to settle.

            Marching down the stairs, I think they realized what was going to happen because suddenly instead of watching drunk people over and over again, Soujirou and Akira were trying frantically to hide. I watched Akira trip and go crashing over the coffee table. Then Soujirou tripped on Akira and went sprawling over too.

            "_So," I let it crack like a whip. "Did you guys have fun at the party last night?"_

            "Yes." Akira said slowly looking slightly afraid as he picked himself off the ground.

            "Good…" I trailed off making it seem like I was not angry with them.

            "So, your not mad?" Soujirou asked hopefully.

            "I'm pissed as hell! And I have the perfect punishment!" I announced. I had to admit, those two looked pretty scared, I think they knew what their punishment was going to be. At least that's what I came to think after they responded.

            "No…not that!" Akira's eyes grew round in realization.

            "Oh yes, that!" I was trying really hard not to start laughing at the two guys who were scared out of their wits at this point. You know, the punishment wasn't _painful or at least not in some senses._

            *                                                                      *                                                                      *

            "Can you refill my lemonade?" I asked Soujirou, not bothering to take my head away from the pinball machine that I was playing. "It's getting sort of empty." 

            "I'm not your slave…" Soujirou muttered.

            "What was that?" I asked sharply as I turned towards him. "'Yes Tsukushi, right away?'" My ball slide down into the bottom past my flipper thingies. Soujirou took the glass away before going into the kitchen. I could hear him and Akira complaining. Those two really needed to learn how to talk without being overheard.

            "I'm tired." Akira whined, he was probably still scrubbing the floors. They had gotten pretty bad because of the party and I felt it was only fair to set _them to the task as they were responsible for The Incident._

            "She's a total slave driver. What does Doumyouji see in her?" Soujirou grumbled as he poured lemonade into a glass.

            "Doumyouji's the same way!" Akira complained. "I went to him and he said that I had to." 

            "Life sucks doesn't it boys?" I called from the living room. "Get me my lemonade, Soujirou. Akira after you finish the kitchen you two can play video games, alright?" 

            "Woohoo!" Akira and Soujirou cheered from the kitchen. Those two were waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too easy to please. The whole house was a lot cleaner than it had been so I felt pretty satisfied with their good work. Though they got the floor down pretty fast because Soujirou actually helped Akira out, they had to reconnect everything because they had put most of the stuff up for the party. We all ended playing video games. 

            "So where's Doumyouji?" I asked. I hadn't seen him all day since the love confession. Which was weird to think back on. With his eyes all intense like that, it was very hard to think so I don't think my mind processed it all the way. It felt like it happened to someone else even though it was just this morning. 

            "In his room I think." Soujirou shrugged. "Did something happen between you two? Did you have a fight?"

            "Um…no…" I answered slowly. I couldn't really tell them anything as it was so I just decided to not answer the question fully. It would have been a funny conversation though.

            _"Well, Doumyouji confessed his great love for me." I'd say. "So he wants to know if I'm interested."_

_            "Huh?" Akira and Soujirou would ask together with twin expressions of bewilderment crossing their faces._

_            "Yeah, what should I say?" I'd ask just to confuse them more so I could keep laughing._

_            "She's weird." Akira would tell Soujirou who would nod his head in agreement._

            Well, it would have been at the very least mildly amusing. Rui came down from his room so that he could sleep on the couch instead of his bed. Sometimes I wondered if maybe Rui was awake and was somehow just gathering information about all of us. You know, like a robot. I had no idea why Rui chose to come down to the couch where he knew he would be bothered by us playing video games as opposed to sleeping in his room where it would be quieter. That's just the way he was. 

            "What are you guys playing?" Doumyouji came downstairs at last. We both looked up at each other at the same moment and I'm telling you we both went about as red as a human possibly could and looked away from each other. Okay, I just had a hard time looking at him in the face without remembering that he had just said he loved me. 

            _GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT TSUKUSHI!!! PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER GIRL!!!_

"Mario Kart." Soujirou answered. "But if you want to play you can't sit next to Tsukushi. We already know your going to cheat." 

            "I'm not gonna cheat!" Doumyouji told him indignantly. Somehow, I seriously doubted that. 

            "Yeah suuuuuuuuuuure." I rolled my eyes. Of course part of me was wondering if it was okay to poke fun at him like this because of what had happened. But that part was getting over ruled because it was so much fun to make fun of Doumyouji. 

            "Thanks for the vote of confidence." Doumyouji said wryly. Pretty soon he had joined us and was sitting next to me even though Soujirou had laid down that one ground rule. Our knees touched and I swear to you we both flew away from each other. Now logically one would say that since me and Doumyouji had sex that we wouldn't be so jumpy, but we were. In fact, I think more so then usual. 

            "Dude Doumyouji, you picked Donkey Kong, that's like committing Mario Kart suicide." Akira informed the curly haired young man. 

            "Yeah Doumyouji, everyone knows that." Soujirou told him in a superior tone. I shook my head. 

            "I wanna play." Rui stated from the couch. I got up and set my controller down.

            "You can have mine. I'm going for a walk." Call me crazy but I swear to you that since Doumyouji had appeared in the room, there was this slight tension in the air. I decided a good walk was in order. The sun was setting anyways and probably was pretty. 

            "Tsukushi's leaving us with these two amateurs." Akira scoffed. 

            "Oh wah wah wah." I mocked them as I left the room. "Get a life you two."  I took my coat with me as I stepped outside, it was still pretty chilly outside. I walked around the house to the back were the park was. I heard footsteps behind me and I turned to see Doumyouji standing there. 

            "Hey." Doumyouji greeted me even though we were just in the same room like two minutes ago. 

            "Hey." I waved a little with a weird look on my face. I think it was suppose to be a smile but I wasn't sure. It probably looked even worse in the dark.

            "Can I join you?" Doumyouji grinned at me. 

            "Okay." I shrugged. "Were the boys sad that you left?"

            "Nah, I'm an amateur remember?" Doumyouji joked as he caught  up with me. "It's just…" 

            "What?" I asked. 

            "Nothing." Doumyouji finally said after a long pause. He was obviously not telling the truth but oh well. Like I really should be the one prying into it.

            "So…" I tried to think of a good conversation to start up. Obviously the tension was not going to get any less. Nothing was coming to mind.

            _It's just getting worse as the time goes on. DO SOMETHING! _

_            What should I do?_

_            Anything. Just go with your gut instinct or something. _

_            What are you going to do?_

_            I don't have to do anything, I'm just the voice in your head. Haha! You have to do all the work!_

Okay the conversations with myself really needed to stop. They were not helping. Suddenly I opened my mouth and out of the blue came out, "How much is that doggy in the window? Woof woof the one with the waggely tail?" 

            _The singing, it needs to stop. _

            I looked over at Doumyouji to see what damage my musical interlude had caused and saw that he was laughing. He finally stopped after a few moments and I felt pretty stupid about the whole thing.

            "I'm sorry that was just…funny…" Doumyouji cleared his throat nervously. The tension had lessened though which had been the desired result. 

            "Hehe." I laughed nervously. 

            "Do you want to go for dinner of something?" Doumyouji asked. "It's my treat."

            "Oh boy." I crossed my arms. "Your pretty sure of yourself, asking me to dinner and all." 

            "_Please," Doumyouji snorted. "I know your just holding out on me." _

            "Holding out? Excuse me?" I asked him. 

            "Come on, let's go get dinner." Doumyouji offered me his arm. 

            "Okay, I shall take advantage of this opportunity to go out to eat and not pay but don't get any funny ideas." I amended. 

            "Too late." Doumyouji took my hand before leading me to his car. 

            "We going to McDonald's?" I asked jokingly. 

            "Do you want to go there?" Doumyouji actually looked seriously. Yeah, someone offers to pay for my dinner and is a kabillionaire and they actually think I would _want to go to the grease factory known as McDonald's? I don't want to sound snobby or anything but I don't think people really choose to go there. They just go there._

            "Not particularly." I shrugged.

            "We can go anywhere you want." Doumyouji offered. 

            "Anywhere I want? What about you?" I asked him. 

            "I'm the one that wants something from you, do you think I would care where you picked? You could want to eat out of a dumpster and I'd be right there with you." Doumyouji told me as if it were completely obvious.

            "So it's like bribery?" I started to laugh. "I wasn't really think about eating out of a dumpster although it is very economical and fast."

            "Well that's good." Doumyouji turned the corner. "So where to?"

            "To Izzy's!" I pointed forward with my arm extended as if leading a charge. "I feel like going to a buffet!" 

            "Okay then." Doumyouji laughed at me a little. I was feeling pretty silly for some reason unbeknownst to me. 

            "Yes!" I cheered. "But you know…"

            "What?" Doumyouji asked as he pulled into a space in front of an Izzy's.

            "Would you really want someone who agreed to be with you because you could pay for them to eat wherever they wanted? That's basically like loving someone for their money." I explained. 

            "Well I was hoping you would fall for my charming good looks." Doumyouji grinned at me. "I know that you wouldn't be with me for my money." 

            "How do you know?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

            "'Cause I can tell." Doumyouji answered simply. "You're too beautiful a person." My jaw probably dropped to the floor at that comment.

            _Yep, I'm blushing. That was soooooooooooo nice and un-Doumyouji-like! I mean a few compliments are one thing but to say something like THAT! _

I felt kind of drunk for some reason. And I can say that with my knowledge because I had been drunk just last night. I was kind of dizzy and had a hard time thinking straight. Me and Doumyouji entered said restaurant which was full of college students. In fact, not too far behind us in getting a table with Soujirou, Akira, and Rui. I was a little surprised that they had torn themselves away from their video games. Oh well. 

            "Hey you guys!" Soujirou immediately slid into our booth followed by the other two. Our table was meant for not that many people but we all squeezed in just fine. 

            "What are you guys doing here?" I asked. 

            "We heard Doumyouji's car leave and we decided we were hungry. But he had already left so we had to take Soujirou's car." Akira pouted. 

            "Hey, my car is cool." Soujirou defended. I had gotten a glimpse of Soujirou's car. It was an okay car but it was rather dented and beat up. Although it was probably no where near the same class as Doumyouji's he was very overprotective of said vehicle. 

            "So is Doumyouji paying?" Akira grinned at Doumyouji. 

            "Um…not for you guys." Doumyouji answered. "I'm paying for Tsukushi and me." 

            "Cheapskate." Soujirou muttered.

            "Mooch." I fired back in Doumyouji's defense.

            "And what are you then?" Soujirou asked. 

            "A mooch." I shrugged as I stood up but found my way blocked by Rui, who looked as though he were about to start sleeping in the middle of the Izzy's. "Come on Rui, wake up, I need food." Rui moved and I went to go load up a plate full of food. Pretty soon we had all come back to the table where we had big plates of food. Well I thought I had a lot food until I saw Soujirou and Akira's plates. This guys really put that stuff away. I guess it's 'cause it was an all you can eat buffet so there was no way that Soujirou or Akira were not going to go all out. In fact, it was becoming some what of a contest between those two. 

            "So who do you think will win?" Rui asked as he picked at what was probably his last plate of food.

            "I dunno…Akira is a whole plate ahead." I pointed out. 

            "Do you guys have to do that?" Doumyouji whined from his place at the table. 

            "What were you guys going for a romantic evening at an Izzy's?" Soujirou asked, looking up from his food for a moment. Rui chose that moment to throw a cherry tomato at him. Which was probably a good thing as it caused all of us to start laughing. It was odd how he could unknowingly help out in a situation. But after all, it was Rui.

*                                              *                                              *

            This time, I was going to beat Soujirou's freaking top score on the pinball machine. Rui had the top score for a long time until after grueling hours of frustrated swearing, Soujirou had beaten it. Now, I wanted all that work to go to waste so that I could be King of the Pinball Machine. Well I guess _Queen of the Pinball Machine but really it's the thought that counts. _

            "Come on Tsukushi!" I cheered for myself as I hit the ball with one of the flippers.

            "Hey Tsukushi, you have visitors." Akira announced as two people followed him into the room. I turned to see them and suddenly pinball was forgotten. It was a slightly miserable Sakurako and pretty darn serious looking Kazuya. I winced at the sound of the machine telling me I had lost. 

            "Hi you guys. What's up?" I asked as I gestured for them to sit down on the couch before plopping myself down in an armchair facing them. 

            "Well…" Sakurako trailed off looking even worse.

            "Sakurako has something she wants to tell you." Kazuya explained. "It took a lot for me to get her to come here though." 

            "What is it?" I asked curiously. I tried to think if Sakurako had done anything bad to me. Well, nothing really came to mind. 

            Sakurako swallowed. "See before you came to Eitoku…I was in love with Doumyouji." 

            _Soooooooooooo? Wait a sec, what? In love with Doumyouji? Geez, I kind of figured that out before I mean…she's kind of obvious._

            "Well I already figured that one out." I wondered if Sakurako thought I was extremely stupid. But that still didn't explain why she looked so upset.

            "But then you came along. You showed up one day and then all of a sudden you and him were going out." Sakurako looked a little angry. "I didn't think it was fair. Not at all. But I had a plan." 

            "A plan?" I cocked my head to one side. 

            "I had this friend, well we've known each other for a while but that's basically because our moms use to force us to hang out with each other because nobody really ever liked him." Sakurako explained slowly, it looked a little hard for her.

            _"This is the first time I've ever been out with a friend…" _

_            No…No…It's just a coincidence…she didn't…_

            "Junpei." The name escaped my lips almost without me realizing it. 

            "That's right." Sakurako nodded glumly. "I told him to win you over. Of course it was a stupid idea and until I realized that I might actually accomplish it. You kept spending more and more time with him. But something happened. Junpei's never had any female attention before, not like the kind that he received from you. He didn't understand how to deal with it." 

            "So then he…" I began to put two and two together. 

            "But I never would have told him to do that!" Tears began to fall down Sakurako's face. "I never would…I would never want that to happen to anyone…not anyone else…" 

            _Anyone else? What does that mean?_

            "Sakurako…you were raped?" I finally got out. Sakurako looked up from her lap with her big eyes full of tears and I knew the answer to my question. 

            "It wasn't Junpei. It was someone else in high school." Sakurako told me. "Believe me, I would never want that to happen to anyone, not even you who took something that I wanted." 

            "I believe you." I murmured. "But I can't believe that it was you behind this the whole time." 

            "I wanted you out of the way…" Sakurako confessed. "But I can't stand walking around and not telling you anything." 

            "It was really brave for you to come and tell me this." A small smile graced my features. "I mean that. You could have gotten away with it, scott free too." 

            "Are you saying you forgive me?" Sakurako's jaw dropped slightly. 

            "Yes, I do. It's not your fault things got out of hand, even if you were the one who started up the whole business. So I guess it wasn't you who shoved me into that glass was it?" I shrugged. "It was probably Asai. Now she is someone I'll have a little trouble forgiving." Sakurako unexpectedly jumped up from the couch and ran and hugged me. I patted her on the back, having a much better understanding of her at that point. 

            _So Sakurako was behind that whole Junpei thing. Well now that I think about, it does make sense! I mean that day when I saw Sakurako yelling at Junpei after the whole thing happened at the party. And when Tsubaki said something about him being one of Sakurako's friends…Damn! I should've figured this out ages ago!_

I looked up at a slight movement at the door but then decided I imagined it or it was just someone walking by. Kazuya and Sakurako soon made their way home, leaving with a few more hugs from Sakurako. I decided I wanted to think about this latest development. I needed a nap. 

            After getting up the stairs, I opened the bedroom door to see someone sitting on my bed. It was Doumyouji. He looked kind of weird. Not angry or anything but sort of…lost. I don't really know how to describe it. He looked like he was trying to make a tough decision though what about I had no idea.

            "We need to talk." Doumyouji stated outloud, surprising me slightly with the noise.

*                                              *                                              *

            Ehehehehe. NO MORE FOR YOU! That's like two cliffhangers in a row! They kill people for that in some countries. This chapter was kind of weird. I dunno…Next chapter might be kind of short…Once again, I really don't know. Well R&R cause it's the cool thing to do.

Fun With Typing:

What I originally wrote:

            "_Please," Doumyouji snorted. "I can tell your five seconds from totally jumping me." _

            ~_^. How's that for smart? 


	16. Yeah, The Author Is Getting Psychiatric ...

Ah yes well now that I've been called a "Cliffhangering ho" by my dear onee-chan, I decided I better hurry up and type up this next chapter. So here you go. And thank you Lawful Fic for such a great review. This chapter is dedicated to you!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango. (Contribute to the fund! I have forty-five cents, only $44.55 till I own the video game!) I also don't own FFVI

Warnings: Please keep reading after this chapter…no matter how painful it can get. Oh and don't mind that dream sequence. I HAD TO DO IT! THE POTATO CHIPS MADE ME!

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Sixteen

_"If this is what he wants,_

_And it's what she wants,_

_Then why is there so much pain?_

_So here's your holiday,_

_Hope you enjoy it this time,_

_You gave it all away,"_

_            -Stay Together For The Kids_, Blink 182

            I was a little surprised by him just sitting there with that look on his face. His eyes were focused on me intently. Of course there could be a thousand reasons as to why he was there. I couldn't really put my finger on one though.

            "What about?" I asked him as I came to sit on my bed next to him. 

            "Tsukushi I was listening…to what Sakurako was telling you." Doumyouji finally pronounced slowly. 

            "Yeah…I can't believe she was behind that all…" I trailed off as I saw the look in his eyes. He was angry. Not with anyone but with himself.

            "I think I've been kind of selfish." Doumyouji went on. "I didn't really think about the sort of things that could have happened to you because of me. And now…it was my fault."

            "What was your fault?" I inquired. "Any of that stuff wasn't your fault it was just…it just happened!"

            "It's my fault that he…" Doumyouji hit the wall next to him with a fist. I was confused. It wasn't his fault. "It was my fault for starting this whole thing!" 

            "It was not! It wasn't your fault!" I insisted. "Why are you saying that?"

            "I'm saying it because it's true!" Doumyouji turned towards me. "I can't cause you anymore suffering! Don't you see how much you mean to me?" 

            "But it's not true what you're saying!" I was becoming a little frustrated. What the heck was he talking about? 

            _Damn this guy is confusing._

            "I'm calling it off." It came from no where I swear. Just all of a sudden it was there. Those words were followed by a silence. Then it dawned on me that Doumyouji had said them.

            "What do you mean?" I asked sharply. Okay if Doumyouji was suddenly going to have a weird-o guilt trip then he could but I was going to snap him out of it.

            "What do you think I mean. It's over." Doumyouji stated and it seemed to like he was straining himself, forcing the words to come out. "We'll call off this whole thing."

            "Why? You're such an idiot; it has nothing to do with you what he did." 

            _Tell me that wasn't me who just said that…that was wrong to say…_

            "I guess I am an idiot aren't I?" Doumyouji stood up. "I bet your glad I'm finally calling it off aren't you?" He looked pissed.

            "Doumyouji I-" I began trying to tell him I hadn't meant it.

            "Your right. It doesn't have anything to do with me does it? You never wanted anything to do with me before did you? Well I guess I just solved all your problems." Doumyouji told me angrily.

            "No you didn't!" I stood up too. "You can't ever listen to other people can you? You don't ever consider anyone else but yourself!" I yelled back at him. If he was going to start accusing me, I was going to start accusing him. That was the way it worked right then.

            "You…you stupid…you stupid bitch!" Doumyouji finally got out. Granted, I've been called a bitch before. But that was just going to freaking far. 

            "Yeah well you don't have to worry about this stupid bitch anymore will you?" I pointed towards the door. "Just get out of here right now!"

            "I will!" Doumyouji turned sharply and went out the door. "This is what _you want." The words bit into me. Was it what I wanted? I don't really know. I never know._

            _We weren't thinking. We both weren't. That wasn't how that should have gone…Why this argument? Why now? Ahhh, shouldn't things be a little less confusing? Now their MORE confusing? Why am I confused? Okay I'm going to stop talking to myself._

I sat down on my bed deciding that if I was going to fume, I was damn well going to be comfortable while doing it. Of course my situation could not get any worse. Now I was stuck in a house with the person that I had been pretending to go out with who had just confessed their love for me not too long ago and now probably hated me. 

            The only thing that could have confused me more happened. 

            Hanazawa Rui came in and sat on my bed as naturally as if it was his own.

            "Hello." Rui greeted me.

            "Um…hey." I got out. 

            _Oh boy…what does he want?_

            "Remember when I asked you why you were here?" Rui began right away. This was unusual for him to initiate a conversation so I knew something was up.

            "Yeah." I nodded. I had no clue what the point to this conversation was plus I was pissed so I probably sounded pretty snappy.

            "I knew why." Rui's words made me look up in surprise. "I knew why and I wanted to tell you to go back."

            "How did you know?" I asked him. "What does this have to do with anything?"

            "Let me finish." Rui put up a hand as if to silence me. "I knew why you were here and I guess I just didn't really think about it. But then this whole thing with Doumyouji happened." 

            "So?" I snapped. "It doesn't matter now."

            "Well maybe it does." Rui put in. "I dunno." He shrugged at this point. "I heard you two arguing."

            "Glad you woke up just for our argument." I shot back. I was venting anger on someone and it might as well be Rui. But then it wasn't exactly fair but when your angry, you don't really think about it. 

            "You can get angry all you want but that doesn't really change anything." Rui looked very faraway then. "I was trying to say, is that this Doumyouji thing happened. At first I thought it was just because you were trying to get back at me somehow. Anyone could see that Doumyouji wouldn't have cared. He must have been in love with you since you first yelled at him."

            _Not uh! That's not true…or was it? It doesn't matter now does it? Or…Oh dammit why am I thinking about it so hard?_

            "Not anymore." I finally got out after my slightly stunned silence.

            "I heard you two. I think he does. You two have hurt each other. Doumyouji might have done it on purpose but you did it to subconsciously drive him away so he wouldn't know how much it hurt you." Rui explained our argument as if it was obvious.

            "What?" I asked.

            "When he called it off, when he wanted to break up with you." Rui went on. "It hurt you."

            "No it didn't!" I hit my fist down on the bed. "Me and him were never going out! It was just an act!"

            "It still hurt you." Rui insisted. "You can choose to acknowledge it or not." 

            "What the heck does that mean? What are you even doing in here?" I asked him. 

            "I'm trying to explain this." Rui shrugged once more. "I was trying to explain that I felt bad about the whole thing. I know I've been distant since you got here. And I know I shouldn't have gone to you when that incident with Shizuka happened. I shouldn't have taken comfort and walked off. But I did."

            "You're apologizing?" I was completely shocked. Okay, I've heard Rui apologize a couple times but never in his whole life had he ever apologized to me directly. Never. 

            "I thought I should." Rui commented as if it were just natural. "I heard the fight and I was thinking about how you've changed. I thought now you were ready for an apology."

            "You heard the fight and then decided to apologize?" I quirked my eyebrow at him. "Okay." 

            "I'm probably going to go sleep on the couch now." Rui got up a stretched. 

            _Damn…this guy is confusing too! DAMMIT!!! Why are they all so confusing?_

            "Wow, that's something different for you." I joked weakly. I was trying not to think of my current problem with Doumyouji. "Are Akira and Soujirou playing video games?" As if on cue Akira yelled up the stairs.

            "Come help us play Final Fantasy Six Tsukushi!" Akira's voice sounded. For some reason, while playing Final Fantasy (insert number here) we always did it as a group. One person would play and the others would add stuff in. (In some cases, not so helpful stuff.)

            "Um sure." I decided that it didn't matter, I wasn't changed by this new development between Doumyouji and I at all. 

            _That's right…I shouldn't even think about it…_

*                                              *                                              *

            Which is what I told myself. But that doesn't mean it actually worked. Oh no, I just kept thinking about it. Gah, why can't my mind just pretend to obey once in a while? I say not to think about something and it does it anyway. Every five seconds while watching the boys play FFVI. It kept me up late into the night and I drifted off to sleep on the couch. 

            "Dude don't cast that." I could hear Akira saying before I had gone to sleep completely. 

            _Me and Soujirou__ walked down the hall of the palace of Figaro, watching the maids and guards bustle by on their way to do various errands. We stepped through the huge double doors leading to the throne room._

_            "Your majesty!" Soujirou ran up to the throne where Doumyouji was sitting. _

_            "Dammit Soujirou, go away." Doumyouji rolled his eyes at the young man. "I don't want to play video games right now."_

_            "Nah not that, it's the chick I picked up in Narshe. You know the brainwashed magic user?" Soujirou gestured towards me. "Kind of ugly though."_

_            Doumyouji just crossed his arms and glared at Soujirou._

_            "Um, hello." I greeted him. _

_            "Welcome to Figaro castle. You've met Soujirou, he's an idiot. I'm King Doumyouji." Doumyouji pronounced. _

_            "I'm Makino Tsukushi…but…wait…aren't you mad at me?" I asked, this coming from no where in the dream._

_            "Um…I don't know…am I?" Doumyouji scratched the back of his head. _

_            "Sir, Kefka is here!" A messenger came in. _

_            "Oh it's just Rui." Soujirou shrugged. "No big deal, he'll fall asleep in five minutes anyway." _

_            "There's no couches here." I pointed out. "We need to get to South Figaro before he sets this place on fire." They all looked at me strangely. "I think." _

_            "Let me grab some phoenix downs and we'll be on our way." Doumyouji nodded his head. Suddenly he turned towards me._

_            "This is the way you want it." Suddenly the dream shattered everywhere and we were somewhere else, facing an ugly looking boss. It snarled and it's claws ripped through Doumyouji._

_            "CAST CURE!" I screamed as I woke up suddenly. Akira and Soujirou looked at me rather strangely even though they were fighting a boss. _

            "Um…kay…" Soujirou cured one of his people. 

            "I think she's getting a little _too_ into the game." Akira commented loudly. 

            "This coming from you guys?" I asked them incredulously. "I just fell asleep that's all."

            "On the couch? Thinking about taking up Rui's job if he ever decides to move out?" Soujirou asked, not taking his eyes away from the screen.

            "No, I don't think anyone could fall asleep everywhere like Rui does." I put in cheerfully.

            "Nuuu." Rui muttered in his sleep on the other side of the couch. 

            "Do you think Doumyouji died in his room?" Akira questioned us, Doumyouji had not left his room all day and small wonder. I was suddenly very quiet.

            "If he did, Tsukushi should go keep him company." Soujirou joked. 

            "Um…" I began. "Me and Doumyouji aren't together anymore." Okay so, I guess right then I could have told Soujirou and Akira what was going on but I didn't. Weird huh? 

            "NO! YOU GUYS CAN'T SPLIT UP!" Akira yelled as he jumped to his feet. "I'm gonna go talk some sense into Doumyouji, you just stay right here." 

            "Akira, sit down." I told the long haired boy. "Stop freaking out. Things like this happen."

            "But…" Akira protested. "But you two were made for each other. Doumyouji's got to be stupid if he doesn't see it."

            _What is it National Boys Are Confusing Day? Why do they care so much?_

            "Dude, Akira, let's just keep playing." Soujirou gave Akira a look. Obviously it was significant to Akira because he sat down and started to play again. I had no idea what was going on right there. My thoughts drifted back towards Doumyouji who was sitting up in his room right then doing who knows what. 

            _It's weird…why does it feel like something in me is broken?_

*                                                          *                                              *

            Okay so next chapter is the last one. So it's like totally sad right now so how could it be fixed? Oh boy…this is going to be hard. Dun dun DUN as Agent MarbleEyes would say. (Gah, she did it enough times when I was telling her about the six book of TOA…) So yeah…on with the stuff. I think I fixed my big weird giant spaces between paragraphs problem! YES!!!

A little Akugi dedicated to that big long review!

Soujirou: Hey! I'm not acting immature!

Akira: Dude, you are soooooooo immature.

Rui: Meow.

Tsukushi: Jade, you realize you're on crack right?

Jade: ^_^

Doumyouji: Can we end this?

THE END!


	17. Give The Woman A Cigar, She Finally Figu...

So this is it. The big one. The end all be all. I need to stop talking in sentences like that. I guess I should really just cut to the damn chase. It's time for the thank you's!

            Ahem. I would like to thank my laptop. See, I didn't have the internet for the first fifteen chapters of this. (Yes, I've been holding out on you people.) But without my laptop we wouldn't have anything because it so faithfully was there. I would like to thank food. I like food and often I'll be sitting there munching on potato chips and something will suddenly pop into my head. I'd like to thank my fine knowledge of video games for helping me right Akira and Soujirou as video game fanatics. This of course being attributed to a childhood of watching people play Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy III without letting me near the Nintendo. And when they did, you can bet I took my precious time. I would like to thank my pajamas as they are comfy and I can lay around in them and write with minimal worries about whether they were getting dirty or not. I would like to thank Teresa-onee-chan. Not only does she get to read everything before everyone but she also has the most wonderful feedback. Also she made me a Gryffindor scarf that is lovely and warm. (Thanks!) Oh! And she bought me a Fruits Basket character art book and not that it has much to do with this story, let's all pretend it did. ('Cause Kyou-san is a sex fiend!) And I also have thank her because without her many drunken sex stories, I would probably never been able to write that one chapter. (Okay so she only wrote like two, so?) I'd like to thank me. I make things possible. And I'd like to thank my choir teacher for giving the choir that huge long lecture about college and taking choir seriously. (Okay I realize we should work hard but yeah…she takes her job a little too seriously.)  Otherwise, this story might never had been thought of, let alone written. I'd like to thank Agent MarbleEyes for one day she will fall down a flight of stairs and land on my very own Doumyouji. (She'll fall down 'em if I have to push her. Not that I would. **Whistles and twiddles her thumbs.**) I'd like to thank Curdled Milk who is a wonderful reviewer and writes a story that is never going to end! (Must…know…what…happens…) It's as addictive as coffee… And I'd like to thank Lawful Fic who wrote a big review for this and it was super fun to read. (I read her one for this Harry Potter fic and it was so funny.) Check out her reviews and stuff at And I'd like to thank Yih, for putting my stuff up on her website. Er, I better give you the URL So now I'll let you read the ending of this story.  

Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango.

Warnings: I'm such a sap. Oh well. Erm cussing, and stuff…yeah…stuff…

Mood music: I listened to that song "Hallelujah" by someone…I dunno it's in that movie Shrek so yeah for like awhile and then I changed to the song I quoted at one point which should be obvious to anyone looking for it. Have fun! 

Never Quite As It Seems

Chapter Seventeen

_"I haven't been this scared in a long time,_

_And I'm so unprepared, so here's your Valentine,_

_Bouquet of clumsy words, a simple melody,_

_This world's an ugly place but you're so beautiful to me,"_

_            -Going Away To College, _Blink 182

            I woke up on Monday morning, not feeling the least bit better. At least I wasn't really all that angry I was just…I'm not sure. Something still hurt. I got dressed and figured I'd go downstairs, eat breakfast, (I'm sure Akira and Soujirou were eating Lucky Charms right about now.) and be on my way to classes without having to so much as pass Doumyouji in the hallway. 

            But of course, as we know, plans usually go wrong. 

            Making my way down the stairs, I was going towards the kitchen when I stopped just around the corner. Doumyouji was already up and talking to Soujirou and Akira. 

            _I shouldn't be eavesdropping…_

            "So I'm going to leave." I could hear Doumyouji telling the others as if he was at the end of a long explanation.

            "Leave?" Soujirou and Akira inquired at the exact same time. 

            "You can't do that!" Akira insisted. "You and Tsukushi will work it out." A lump formed in my throat. 

            _He's leaving? Like what? Leaving for a few days???_

"No, I decided to transfer to a different college in New York." Doumyouji seemed very firm on the subject as if he had been planning this for a long time. "It's better this way."

            "You can't leave! We've been friends since high school!" Soujirou insisted. "Come on, you know that's not gonna solve anything." 

            "Your sister isn't going to let you go and you know it." Akira pointed out. 

            "My sister is not in charge of me. I'm leaving this afternoon." Doumyouji told them. 

            "This afternoon? You couldn't give us a little more time?" Soujirou pleaded with him. "Gah, you're really just going to pick up and leave? What about Tsukushi?"

            "Tsukushi doesn't want me here." Doumyouji answered simply.

            _He's leaving…I'll never see him again…why? Why is he leaving? Why does it hurt?_

            I turned away from the entrance to the kitchen and ran. I ran straight out the front door and began running down the street. I don't know why I was running like this, I felt like I was trying to outrun something. 

            At first I thought I was running to my first class but then I changed my mine. No need to try to pay attention in class. It was so odd thinking about walking to my first class. Doumyouji had been driving me every day. I finally stopped running and caught a bus into town. 

            I found a coffee shop and went inside. Some nice warm coffee would probably calm me down. I felt so unsettled. I got a cappuccino and sat down in front of a window, sipping my hot drink. 

            Watching cars go by I wasn't really thinking that much. It was like being in a daze. 

            _Why do I feel like this?_

            I didn't even think when a white convertible went by and I saw Tsubaki and Shigeru in it looking at me with interesting expressions. I waved at them. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake. They pulled into the coffee shop on a very sharp turn that made me realize that the Doumyouji family had a thing for driving dangerously. Tsubaki and Shigeru both came inside. 

            Tsubaki slammed her hands down on the table.

            "He's leaving!" She exclaimed in obvious frustration. "He won't listen to me at all!"

            "So?" I asked glumly. "It's his decision."

            "Tsukushi what happened between you and Tsukasa?" Shigeru asked as she stood next to Tsubaki. 

            "Who cares what happened? The important thing is now Tsukushi is going to go tell him to stay." Tsubaki grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from about half my cappuccino. 

            "Wait!" I yanked my arm away as we started to go out the coffee shop's doors. "I can't do that! He won't listen to me."

            "Of course he will. Naturally he's just doing this because of something between you and him. You just have to hit him over the head and call him an idiot. He'll stay." Tsubaki nodded her head as if this had been the plan all along.

            "No he won't. Tsubaki…just go home…let me drink my coffee okay?" I asked her in a small voice. 

            "You're just going to let him?" Tsubaki questioned looking some what stunned. 

            "What would you have me do?" I questioned her, a felt tears start to well up in my eyes. "What do you want me to do?"

            _Why am I so sad? _

"Tsukushi…" Tsubaki began in a pleading tone. "Tsukushi come on, let's go. Your just going to stay here the whole time and not face him? Don't you feel like a coward?" 

            "No!" I pushed past her and Shigeru and began to run again. There's was something about running. But this time I was almost blinded by tears that I didn't really understand. They were just coming down. 

            _I feel like I'm losing something. Something important. Why do I feel like this? Why? _

            I broke down and began crying immediately. Right there in the middle of a sidewalk. People looked at me strangely but I didn't care. I was crying to hard to stop right then. It was almost as if I had been holding back these tears for a long time. 

            "Miss are you alright?" One passerby asked me. I nodded dumbly. I might as well get off the ground. I was still crying as I looked around. I looked up at the café I was sitting in front of. 

            _It's the café that Doumyouji took me to…_

            More tears started to come down as I thought about that night.  It was a long time ago. Or it felt that way to me.

            _"So you are worried about me."_

_            I was worried about him wasn't I? It's kind of odd isn't it?_

I walked along and looked into the window of that same candy store. I remembered standing there just like that looking at chocolate teddy bears. The display had changed. 

            _"I'm glad you like it."_

            _He always did think of me…didn't he? He wanted to make me smile…_

I smiled a little through my tears. My feet kept going though. They just knew where they were taking me. It was odd how the memories were coming back to me.

            That's when I saw the flower vendor selling flowers to a couple. A dozen roses. I remembered Doumyouji's speech about giving flowers to girls. I thought of when he bought me those flowers, so long ago on that one night.

            _"What do you think I'm getting them for?"_

_            Heh, I must have seemed stupid then…not to figure it out. Did he like me back then? What did Rui say? That Doumyouji was in love with me since I first yelled at him? Was he right?_

            I approached the flower vendor, looking at all the flowers. 

            "Would you like to buy some miss?" The vendor asked politely. A tear rolled down my cheek. 

            "I think I'll take a rose." A finally got out. "A red one." 

            "Are you alright?" The vendor questioned me looking concerned. He got the flower and wrapping it in nice paper. 

            "Not really." I shook my head. "I don't even know what I'm doing." 

            "Here." The vendor handed it to me. I started to go for money from my pockets but he stopped me. "Just take it miss, and try and smile okay?"

            "Thank you." I smiled slightly as I walked away looking at my flower. I kept walking for a long time. Amazingly I had found my way to the park that was located behind the houses, but I was a long way from the houses. I could barely make them out. I sat down on a bench with my one flower.

            "Why do I keep acting weird?" A girl asked her friend as they walked by me. 

            "Dude, you're dumb." The friend rolled her eyes. "It's obvious isn't it? You're in love." 

            "Am not!" The girl denied. "Or…I guess I am aren't I?" 

            "Gah, I hope he doesn't go for you for your brains…" The friend teased. My mouth dropped open slightly. I was just staring at them as if they had wings.

            _"Why do I keep acting weird?" _

_            "It's obvious isn't it? You're in love."_

_            "You're in love." _

Something struck me right then and there. I had an epiphany. It was the most wonderful feeling in the whole world. I cannot begin to describe it to you. It was as if a ray of light shot through all my confusion and frustration and sadness, melting it away. It seemed so obvious before that it was almost funny.

            _I'm in love with Doumyouji. _

It was unbelievable how liberated I felt when I realized it. Everything began to click into place. 

            _I'm totally in love with Doumyouji! GAHHHHHHHHH! Great, now what do I do? He's leaving this afternoon! Spectacular timing Tsukushi. _

_            I'm an idiot. Wait! Maybe I can stop him!_

_            Wait, we had that fight. NOOOOOOOOOOO!_

_            But maybe…maybe he won't leave. Maybe Tsubaki's right, if I tell him not to he won't. _

_            What if he doesn't want me anymore? Maybe I shouldn't go…_

_            You won't know unless you try! What are you? A coward? Makino Tsukushi never backs away from a challenge!_

"That's right!" I stood up and struck a determined pose. Several people looked at me funny. I didn't care though. I ran towards the houses. I jogged as fast as I could. I was halfway through the park when I had to stop to catch my breath. 

            "Hey Tsukushi!" Makiko and Yuuki waved at me. I waved back before starting up again. I could hear their conversation go on.

            "Where's she going?" Makiko asked Yuuki. Then I was out of hearing range. Dammit, I was going to get to that house if it killed me. 

            _Must…get there…_

            I ran around the back of the house and ran through the front door, which I closed quietly as I had no idea if anyone was home or not. I don't know, I didn't want to make a huge noisy entrance. Maybe a dramatic one. 

            I went towards the living room where I heard voices.

            "What's that check for?" Soujirou's voice could be heard asking. 

            "It's for Tsukushi." I heard Doumyouji's voice and felt this weird happy feeling rise up.

            _I'm in loooooooooooooooooooooove! _

            "TEN THOUSAND???" Soujirou's yell probably echoed through the whole house and seven states. 

            _Ten…thousand? THAT'S A TON OF MONEY! WOAH! _

            "Keep it down Soujirou." Doumyouji hushed him. "It's a long story."

            "So what are you going to do? Are you going to say good-bye to Tsukushi?" Soujirou asked them.

            "I'm just going to give her the money and go. We don't really need to say good-bye…" Doumyouji sounded sad. I chose this moment to make my entrance. I stalked in there with my hands on my hips. The two boys were looking at me with surprise.

            "I heard you're leaving." I pursed my lips. 

            "Yes I am." Doumyouji didn't exactly look me in the eye. "Here's what I owe you." The check was in his hand which he held out towards me. I looked at it and took a deep breath. I took the check from him. 

            And I threw it up in the air over my shoulder, before doing something that I would never regret.

            I suddenly wrapped my arms around Doumyouji and kissed him. 

            He pulled me further into the kiss, wrapping his arms around me in turn. We finally broke after awhile. I remembered my flower and held it out towards him.

            "So what does it mean when a girl gives a boy a flower?" I asked with a grin. Doumyouji grinned back. 

            "I think it means that she wants to kiss him again." Doumyouji braved. He didn't have to ask twice. Soujirou coughed and I remembered that he was also in the room. 

            "Akira! Get down here!" Soujirou yelled and Akira came flying down the stairs. 

            "I knew they were going to get a happy ending…sheesh…" Akira shook his head as if we were all far younger than he was. 

*                                              *                                              *

            "So the whole time, it was just an act?" Tsubaki looked horrified. "You two were so convincing!" 

            "I really thought they were together…" Shigeru scratched the back of her head in confusion. "I guess they are now right?"

            "Yeah." I affirmed. 

            "Um, Akira and I have a confession to make." Soujirou announced. We were all sitting at the table in our house and Doumyouji and I just got done telling everyone the story. 

            "You spiked my soda?" I asked jokingly as Akira had been the one to get sodas for everyone.

            "No. We knew the whole time what was going on." Akira told us. 

            "You…did?" Doumyouji finally got out because I was still confused.

            "Yeah, we just thought it would be fun to torture you guys. Besides we knew you two would end up together for real." Soujirou shrugged. 

            "You two…" I trailed off dangerously. 

            "Hey, it was all in good fun right?" Shizuka jumped in. Rui was sitting next to her. "You can't really blame them…" 

            "I can if I want to." I murmured. "Oh well." 

            "Let's go play video games!" Soujirou suggested. Everyone agreed to this and we all were walking out when Doumyouji put his arms around me, stopping me. 

            "So…I guess we're together now…" Doumyouji trailed off. I giggled.

            "Yep." I agreed.

            "And you're in love with me." Doumyouji stated. 

            "Yep." I nodded a little.

            "You realize you'll have to meet my parents and all that." Doumyouji added in.

            "Yep." I shrugged.

            "And my mom will hate you." Doumyouji kept going.

            "Yep." I affirmed. 

            "And she'll probably be against it." Doumyouji went on.

            "Doumyouji?" I turned to face him, putting my arms around him in turn. 

            "Yeah?" Doumyouji looked down at me curiously.

            "Shut up." I told him before going in for a kiss. We walked into the living room after that so that we could have some sort of video game tournament as a celebration. I looked over at Doumyouji and I decided something right then and there.

            Life is pretty damn sweet.

*                                              *                                              *

            Dude, that was great. I feel really good about how that chapter went. I was scared it was going to be short but it wasn't so go me! I rule! Please R&R my friends because as we know, author's want reviews.

            More shameless self plugging: I have another couple AU's planned. (Where do I come up with this stuff?) Including the AU of Doom as I've so wisely dubbed it and others, plus a what if-er fic and fun stuff like that. So please stay tuned. The next AU I'm putting out is going to be a lot more serious, something new and different for Jade! It's called Fly Away From Here and I won't say anymore then that! 


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